Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2001/iii/paper-65/2/ii/solution

For a massless supermultiplet, put the momentum along the third axis. The matrix in the supersymmetry algebra has rank one, so only one fermionic oscillator acts nontrivially. It relates states whose helicities differ by . Including the antiparticles required by CPT completion of a supermultiplet gives the following complete spectra.
A chiral multiplet contains a complex scalar and a Weyl spinor . Its scalar particle and antiparticle have helicity ; its fermion particle and antiparticle have helicities and . Therefore , with maximum absolute helicity .
A supersymmetric vector multiplet contains a massless gauge vector , with helicities , and a Majorana spinor gaugino , with helicities . Again , now with maximum absolute helicity . The chiral and vector auxiliary fields contribute no on-shell states.
The Higgs mechanism is compatible with unbroken supersymmetry. A supersymmetric vacuum may have nonzero scalar vacuum expectation values that break the internal gauge symmetry while obeying both F-flatness and D-flatness. For example, oppositely charged chiral superfields with , no Fayet–Iliopoulos term and equal nonzero scalar magnitudes have but break the Abelian gauge group. In the supersymmetric Higgs mechanism, a massless vector multiplet combines with the chiral multiplet along the broken gauge direction. One real scalar becomes the longitudinal vector polarization; the other remains a physical real scalar, and the gaugino combines with the Higgsino into a Dirac spinor. The resulting massive vector multiplet has bosonic and fermionic states with a common mass, as in part (i). Any other uneaten chiral multiplets remain separately in the spectrum.

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