Supersymmetry shielding the scaling symmetry of conformal quantum mechanics

Abstract

Renormalization of the inverse square potential usually breaks its classical conformal invariance. In a strongly attractive potential, the scaling symmetry is broken to a discrete subgroup while, in a strongly repulsive potential, it is preserved at quantum level. In the intermediate, weak-medium range of the coupling, an anomalous length scale appears due to a flow of the renormalization group away from a critical point. We show that potentials with couplings in the strongly-repulsive and in the weak-medium ranges can be related by a dynamical supersymmetry. Imposing SUSY invariance unifies these two ranges, and fixes the anomalous scale to zero, thus restoring the continuous scaling symmetry.