Minimal four-dimensional supergravity ($\mathcal{N}=1,(e_{\mu }{}^a,{\psi }_{\mu })$)

Minimal four-dimensional supergravity couples a graviton to one Majorana gravitino. In the normalization $\delta e_{\mu }{}^a=2\kappa \overline{ϵ}{\gamma }^a{\psi }_{\mu }$, $\delta {\psi }_{\mu }={\nabla }_{\mu }ϵ/\kappa$, its action through quadratic fermion order is $\int e[R/(2{\kappa }^2)-2{\bar{\psi }}_{\mu }{\gamma }^{\mu \nu \rho }{\nabla }_{\nu }{\psi }_{\rho }]$. Rescaling the gravitino and parameter by two gives the usual canonical kinetic coefficient $-1/2$. The curvature identity ${\gamma }^{\mu \nu \rho }{\nabla }_{\nu }{\nabla }_{\rho }ϵ=G^{\mu \nu }{\gamma }_{\nu }ϵ/2$ cancels the Einstein-Hilbert variation against the Rarita-Schwinger variation. The omitted cubic-fermion variations require the quartic-fermion completion.

Old-minimal four-dimensional supergravity adds a complex scalar $M$ and a real vector $b_{\mu }$ to the vierbein and gravitino. These six real bosonic auxiliary field components have no propagating kinetic terms. They balance the off-shell component count of minimal supergravity and permit the local supersymmetry algebra to close without imposing the propagating Euler-Lagrange field equations.

A four-dimensional Majorana spinor gravitino has $4\times 4=16$ real components, minus four local supersymmetry gauge functions, leaving twelve before using any Euler-Lagrange field equation. A vierbein has sixteen real components, minus six local Lorentz transformation and four diffeomorphism gauge functions, leaving six. Equivalently, a symmetric metric tensor has $10-4=6$. The propagating graviton and massless gravitino each have two states on shell. Six bosonic auxiliary field components complete an off-shell supergravity multiplet.

With canonical Rarita-Schwinger field normalization, one convention gives the displayed torsion tensor. Its contorsion tensor is $K_{\mu ab}={\kappa }^2({\bar{\psi }}_{\mu }{\gamma }_a{\psi }_b-{\bar{\psi }}_{\mu }{\gamma }_b{\psi }_a+{\bar{\psi }}_a{\gamma }_{\mu }{\psi }_b)/4$. The algebraic spin connection equation determines $\tilde{\omega }=\omega (e)+K$; substituting it in the action produces four-fermion terms. This is an instance of Einstein-Cartan theory and is efficiently varied using the 1.5-order formalism. A rescaled gravitino changes the displayed coefficient.

An Abelian vector multiplet contains a Maxwell field and a Majorana gaugino. With the doubled gravitino normalization, add $e[-F^2/4-\bar{\lambda }/\nabla \lambda /2-(\kappa /2){\bar{\psi }}_{\mu }{F}_{ab}{\gamma }^{ab}{\gamma }^{\mu }\lambda ]$. The leading transformations are $\delta A_{\mu }=\overline{ϵ}{\gamma }_{\mu }\lambda$ and $\delta \lambda =-F_{ab}{\gamma }^{ab}ϵ/2$. Promoting the rigid parameter to a function produces the current $(F_{ab}/2){\gamma }^{ab}{\gamma }^{\mu }\lambda$ multiplying ${\nabla }_{\mu }\overline{ϵ}$; the gravitino-current term cancels it. The Clifford identity $(F_{ab}{\gamma }^{ab}){\gamma }^{\mu }(F_{cd}{\gamma }^{cd})=8T_{\mathrm{EM}}^{\mu \nu }{\gamma }_{\nu }$ cancels the Maxwell stress variation. Supercovariant field strengths and quartic fermions complete the transformations beyond this order.

A real cosmological deformation adds $3m^{2}e/{\kappa }^2+2me{\bar{\psi }}_{\mu }{\gamma }^{\mu \nu }{\psi }_{\nu }$ and changes the gravitino variation to ${\mathcal{D}}_{\mu }ϵ/\kappa$. The modified commutator identity is ${\gamma }^{\mu \nu \rho }{\mathcal{D}}_{\nu }{\mathcal{D}}_{\rho }ϵ=(G^{\mu \nu }+\Lambda g^{\mu \nu }){\gamma }_{\nu }ϵ/2$. It fixes the negative cosmological constant in terms of the gravitino mass parameter. A positive cosmological constant is not obtained by this real unbroken minimal deformation.