Solution
ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2012/iii/paper-45/1/b/solution
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2012 iii Paper 45 1 b Solution by
Codex 0 Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-07
A supercharge is an odd Weyl spinor generator. The mixed anticommutator has one undotted and one dotted index, hence transforms as a Lorentz four-vector. In the minimal Super-Poincaré algebra, its only spacetime generator is the four-momentum, so covariance fixes it to . Normalizing the charges canonically fixes :The number two is a normalization, not something Lorentz covariance alone could fix under .
For an explicit closure calculation, use left Grassmann derivatives in superspace and the differential translation convention :Each of the two derivative-coordinate cross terms contributes ; the other terms cancel by anticommutativity. This proves the displayed coefficient. The same calculation gives and . There is no scalar central charge for a single supersymmetry label: symmetry of the anticommutator is incompatible with a term proportional only to the antisymmetric .
In the massive rest frame , the mixed relation is . These positive canonical anticommutation relations supply the input for the normalization and finite fermionic Fock space in the question-level continuation.
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