Superfield Research Articles

Just another field theory approach to N=1 super-Yang-Mills theory and the origin of intrinsic supergeometry

We present a nongeometric derivation of N=1 Super Yang-Mills by focusing on the consistency of interactions that extend the free vector supermultiplet rather than assuming gauge invariance under extended symmetries. By utilizing a superspace first-order description, the theory is given in closed form as a third-order polynomial, which includes a single cubic interaction term instead of an infinite series, thus eliminating the need for a special gauge. The geometrical interpretation of the theory emerges, as opposed to being presupposed. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Effective Kähler and auxiliary field potentials for chiral superfield models at three loops

I obtain the effective Kähler potential at three-loop order for a general renormalizable supersymmetric theory containing only chiral supermultiplets. The three-loop contribution is remarkably simple, consisting of only four terms involving three distinct renormalized master integrals. In the case of the Wess-Zumino model with a single chiral superfield, I also obtain the effective auxiliary field potential at three-loop order, extending previous results at one-loop order. The method used is inferential, relying on existing knowledge of the ordinary scalar effective potential. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Unstable instantons in A-model localization

We apply localization techniques to A-twisted N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = (2) theories of vector multiplets on S2. We derive formulae for A-model partition functions and correlators as integrals along a real contour, as opposed to a complex one. Using the correlator formula, we successfully recover the unstable instanton partition function of pure two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory from the vacuum expectation value of an A-model operator.

Spontaneous CP violation in supersymmetric QCD

We investigate a composite model of spontaneous CP violation based on a new supersymmetric QCD as a solution to the strong CP problem. The scalar components of the meson chiral superfields obtain complex vacuum expectation values to break CP symmetry spontaneously. Then, wavefunction renormalization for the quark kinetic terms provides the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) phase, while the strong CP phase θ¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\overline{\ heta} $$\\end{document} is protected by nonrenormalization of the superpotential and hermiticity of the wavefunction renormalization factor. In our model, the right-handed down-type quark multiplets are given by composite states, enhancing their couplings to CP breaking fields, which is essential to realize the observed CKM phase. The non-perturbative dynamics generates the scale of spontaneous CP violation hierarchically lower than the Planck scale. We discuss potential corrections to θ¯\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\overline{\ heta} $$\\end{document} and find a viable parameter space of the model to solve the strong CP problem without fine-tuning.

Supersymmetric spectrum for vector multiplet on Euclidean AdS2

Quantum study of supersymmetric theories on Euclidean two dimensional anti-de Sitter space (EAdS2) requires complexified spectrum. For a chiral multiplet, we showed that the spectrum of the Dirac operator acquires a universal shift of i/2 from the real spectrum to make the supersymmetry between boson and fermion manifest, where both the bosonic and fermionic eigenfunctions are normalizable using an appropriate definition of Euclidean inner product. We extend this analysis to the vector multiplet, where we show that the gaugino requires both +i/2 and i/2 shift from the real spectrum, and there is additional isolated point at vanishing spectral parameter which is mapped by supersymmetry to the boundary zero modes of the vector field. Furthermore, this spectral analysis shows that not every bosonic fields in the vector multiplet can satisfy normalizable boundary condition. Nevertheless, aided by a reorganization of fields into a cohomological form, we find the supersymmetry mapping between bosons and fermions in terms of the expansion coefficients with respect to the newly constructed basis.

Geometry of N=2 Minkowski vacua of gauged N=2 supergravity theories in four dimensions

Gauging isometries of four-dimensional N=2 supergravity theories yields an N=2 supersymmetric theory with a scalar potential. In this paper, we study the well-known constraints for four-dimensional N=2 Minkowski vacua of such theories. We propose that classically a projective special Kähler submanifold of the projective Kähler target space of the ungauged theory describes the moduli space of the complex scalar fields of massless vector multiplets for N=2 Minkowski vacua configurations, which then receives quantum corrections from integrating out massive fields. Subloci of projective special Kähler manifolds appear as supersymmetric flux vacua in the context of type IIB Calabi–Yau threefold compactifications with background fluxes as well. While these flux vacua equations arise from the critical locus of an N=1 superpotential, we show that these equations can also be obtained from the N=2 supersymmetric Minkowski vacuum equations of gauged N=2 supergravity theories upon gauging suitable isometries in the semiclassical universal hypermultiplet sector of type IIB string Calabi–Yau threefold compactifications. Thus, we give an intrinsic N=2 supersymmetric interpretation to the flux vacua equations. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Exact moduli spaces for N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2, D = 5 freely acting orbifolds

We use freely acting asymmetric orbifolds of type IIB string theory to construct a class of theories in five dimensions with eight supercharges whose moduli spaces for vector multiplets and hypermultiplets can be determined exactly. We argue that no quantum corrections to these moduli spaces arise. We focus on examples in which all moduli are in the NS-NS sector, while all fields from the R-R sector become massive. The full symmetry group of the moduli space is then determined by the subgroup of the T-duality group that survives the orbifold action. We illustrate this for freely acting orbifolds of type IIB string theory on T5 with 0, 1 or 2 hypermultiplets.

N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 conformal supergravity in five dimensions

N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 conformal supergravity in five dimensions is constructed via a systematic off-shell reduction scheme from maximal conformal supergravity in six dimensions which is (2, 0). The dimensional reduction of the (2, 0) Weyl multiplet in six dimensions gives us the Weyl multiplet in five dimensions which is a dilaton Weyl multiplet as it has a dilaton scalar. The dimensional reduction of the (2, 0) tensor multiplet in six dimensions gives us the N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 vector multiplet in five dimensions coupled to conformal supergravity. We also comment on Nahm’s classification regarding the non-existence of an N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 superconformal algebra in five dimensions and why it does not contradict the existence of N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 conformal supergravity in five dimensions that is constructed in this paper.

Line defect half-indices of SU(N) Chern-Simons theories

We study the Wilson line defect half-indices of 3d N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 supersymmetric SU(N) Chern-Simons theories of level k ≤ – N with Neumann boundary conditions for the gauge fields, together with 2d Fermi multiplets and fundamental 3d chiral multiplets to cancel the gauge anomaly. We derive some exact results and also make some conjectures based on expansions of the q-series. We find several interesting connections with special functions known in the literature, including Rogers-Ramanujan functions for which we conjecture integral representations, and the appearance of Appell-Lerch sums for certain Wilson line half-index grand canonical ensembles which reveal an unexpected appearance of mock modular functions. We also find intriguing q-difference equations relating half-indices to Wilson line half-indices. Some of these results also have a description in terms of a dual theory with Dirichlet boundary conditions for the vector multiplet in the dual theory.

A 500 V Super Field Plate LIGBT With Excellent Voltage Blocking Capability

A 500 V Super Field Plate LIGBT With Excellent Voltage Blocking Capability

Higher-derivative corrections to flavoured BPS black hole thermodynamics and holography

A Cardy-like regime of the four-dimensional superconformal index has been shown to be governed by ’t Hooft anomalies and to single out a large-N saddle carrying the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy of dual supersymmetric black holes in AdS5. For the universal index where no flavour fugacities are turned on, this correspondence has been improved by matching the first subleading corrections to the saddle-point action with the four-derivative corrections to the black hole action in minimal gauged supergravity, as well as the respective corrected entropies. Here, we extend this match by including flavour symmetries. We consider five-dimensional gauged supergravity with vector multiplet and four-derivative couplings, and provide an effective theory reproducing the ’t Hooft anomalies of the R- and flavour symmetries of generic holographic superconformal field theories at next-to-leading order in the large-N expansion. Then we focus on a specific model dual to ℂ3/ℤν quiver gauge theories, where the ’t Hooft anomaly coefficients receive simple but sufficiently generic corrections. In this model, we evaluate the four-derivative corrections to the on-shell action of the supersymmetric multi-charge black hole, showing agreement with the flavoured Cardy-like formula from the index. We give a prediction for the corrected entropy of the supersymmetric black hole and discuss the general validity of our results. Taking the limit of infinite AdS5 radius, we also obtain four-derivative corrections to the action and entropy of supersymmetric asymptotically flat black holes.

Anisotropic dark energy from string compactifications

We explore the cosmological dynamics of a minimalistic yet generic string-inspired model for multifield dark energy. Adopting a supergravity four-dimensional viewpoint, we motivate the model’s structure arising from superstring compactifications involving a chiral superfield and a pure U(1) gauge sector. The chiral sector gives rise to a pair of scalar fields, such as the axio-dilaton, which are kinetically coupled. However, the scalar potential depends on only one of them, further entwined with the vector field through the gauge kinetic function. The model has two anisotropic attractor solutions that, despite a steep potential and thanks to multifield dynamics, could explain the current accelerated expansion of the Universe while satisfying observational constraints on the late-times cosmological anisotropy. Nevertheless, justifying the parameter space allowing for slow roll dynamics together with the correct cosmological parameters, would be challenging within the landscape of string theory. Intriguingly, we find that the vector field, particularly at one of the studied fixed points, plays a crucial role in enabling geodesic trajectories in the scalar field space while realizing slow-roll dynamics with a steep potential. This observation opens a new avenue for exploring multifield dark energy models within the superstring landscape.

N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 3 conformal superspace in four dimensions

We develop a superspace formulation for N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 3 conformal supergravity in four spacetime dimensions as a gauge theory of the superconformal group SU(2, 2|3). Upon imposing certain covariant constraints, the algebra of conformally covariant derivatives ∇A=∇a∇αi∇iα⋅\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ {\ abla}_A=\\left({\ abla}_a,{\ abla}_{\\alpha}^i,{\ abla}_i^{\\overset{\\cdot }{\\alpha }}\\right) $$\\end{document} is shown to be determined in terms of a single primary chiral spinor superfield, the super-Weyl spinor Wα of dimension +1/2 and its conjugate. Associated with Wα is its primary descendant Bij of dimension +2, the super-Bach tensor, which determines the equation of motion for conformal supergravity. As an application of this construction, we present two different but equivalent action principles for N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 3 conformal supergravity. We describe the model for linearised N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 3 conformal supergravity in an arbitrary conformally flat background and demonstrate that it possesses U(1) duality invariance. Additionally, upon degauging certain local symmetries, our superspace geometry is shown to reduce to the U(3) superspace constructed by Howe more than four decades ago. Further degauging proves to lead to a new superspace formalism, called SU(3) superspace, which can also be used to describe N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 3 conformal supergravity. Our conformal superspace setting opens up the possibility to formulate the dynamics of the off-shell N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 3 super Yang-Mills theory coupled to conformal supergravity.

Nanohertz gravitational waves from supergravity inflationary model with double-inflection-point

Recently, the worldwide pulsar timing array(PTA) collaborations, such as the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array (CPTA), the European PulsarTiming Array (EPTA), the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) and the Parkers Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) published the analysis of PTA data, which is consistent with the Hellings–Downs curve, thus provides evidence for the existence of stochastic gravitational wave backgrounds (SGWB). In this paper, we will show that such SGWB signal observed by PTA can be explained by the gravitational waves (GWs) induced from double-inflection-point inflationary model in the framework of supergravity with a single chiral superfield. In this model, one of the inflection points leads to a large peak in the scalar power spectrum at small scales, and when this peak re-enters the horizon, it will induce GWs with the frequencies around nanohertz. In addition, we show that the high-density regions corresponding to the peak can collapse into planet-mass primordial black holes (PBHs), thus act as a component of dark matter (DM).

Superconformal interacting particles

The free massless superparticle is reanalyzed, in particular by performing the Gupta-Bleuler quantization, using the first- and second-class constraints of the model, and obtaining as a result, the Weyl equation for the spinorial component of the chiral superfield. Then we construct a superconformal model of two interacting massless superparticles from the free case by the introduction of an invariant interaction. The interaction introduces an effective mass for each particle by modifying the structure of fermionic constraints, all becoming second class. The quantization of the model produces a bilocal chiral superfield. We also generalize the model by considering a system of superconformal interacting particles and its continuum limit. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Rounding out the story of higher derivative consistent truncations

At the two-derivative order, the group manifold reduction of heterotic supergravity on S3 results in a half-maximal 7D gauged supergravity coupled to three vector multiplets, and a further truncation can be taken to remove the vector multiplets. We demonstrate that this truncation remains consistent at the four-derivative level; we do so both by analysis of the equations of motion and the supersymmetry variations.

Computational Mirror Symmetry

We present an efficient algorithm for computing the prepotential in compactifications of type II string theory on mirror pairs of Calabi-Yau threefolds in toric varieties. Applying this method, we exhibit the first systematic computation of genus-zero Gopakumar-Vafa invariants in compact threefolds with many moduli, including examples with up to 491 vector multiplets.

3d exceptional gauge theories and boundary confinement

We find boundary confining dualities of 3d N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 2 supersymmetric gauge theories with exceptional gauge groups. The half-indices which enumerate the boundary BPS local operators in the presence of Neumann and Dirichlet boundary conditions for gauge fields are identified with the Askey-Wilson type q-beta integrals and Macdonald type sums respectively. New conjectural identities of E6 and E7 integrals and sums are derived from the boundary confining dualities. We also consider theories with a vector multiplet and adjoint chiral, which correspond to an N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 vector multiplet, with appropriate boundary conditions. We argue for the boundary confinement of the N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 4 vector multiplet and comment on such theories also with classical gauge groups.

Finiteness of N=4 Super-Yang–Mills Effective Action in Terms of Dressed N=1 Superfields

We argue in favor of the independence on any scale, ultraviolet or infrared, in kernels of the effective action expressed in terms of dressed N=1 superfields for the case of N=4 super-Yang–Mills theory. Under “scale independence” of the effective action of dressed mean superfields, we mean its “finiteness in the off-shell limit of removing all the regularizations”. This off-shell limit is scale independent because no scale remains inside these kernels after removing the regularizations. We use two types of regularization: regularization by dimensional reduction and regularization by higher derivatives in its supersymmetric form. Based on the Slavnov–Taylor identity, we show that dressed fields of matter and of vector multiplets can be introduced to express the effective action in terms of them. Kernels of the effective action expressed in terms of such dressed effective fields do not depend on the ultraviolet scale. In the case of dimensional reduction, by using the developed technique, we show how the problem of inconsistency of the dimensional reduction can be solved. Using Piguet and Sibold formalism, we indicate that the dependence on the infrared scale disappears off shell in both the regularizations.

Melvin space-times in supergravity

We consider Melvin-like cosmological and static solutions for the theories of N=2, D=4 supergravity coupled to vector multiplets. We analyze the equations of motion and give some explicit solutions with one scalar and two gauge fields. Generalized Melvin solutions with four charges are also constructed for an embedding of a truncated N=8 supergravity theory. Our results are then extended to supergravity theories with the scalar manifolds SL(N,R)/SO(N,R). It is shown that solutions with N charges only exist for N=8, 6 and 5 corresponding to theories with space-time dimensions D=4, 5 and 7.