Quantum superconformal symmetry in N = 2 harmonic superspace

Abstract

In gauge theories, not all rigid symmetries of the classical action can be maintained manifestly in the quantization procedure, even in the absence of anomalies. If this occurs for an anomaly-free symmetry, the effective action is invariant under a transformation that differs from its classical counterpart by quantum corrections. In this note, we set up a harmonic superspace formalism for computing quantum deformations of superconformal symmetry in the N = 4 supersymmetric Yang–Mills theory.