Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2002 / iii / Paper 68 / 1

Three independent motivations are radiative stability, gauge unification and dark matter. First, supersymmetric cancellation of quadratic divergences protects the Higgs scalar mass from the hierarchy problem; residual corrections are controlled by soft supersymmetry breaking, so avoiding large cancellations favours a breaking scale near the weak scale. Second, supersymmetric gauge coupling unification can reconcile the running of the three Standard Model couplings when superpartner thresholds lie near that scale. Third, with conserved R-parity, a stable lightest supersymmetric particle can provide dark matter, and weak-scale annihilation can produce an appropriate thermal abundance. These are conditional motivations, not proofs of a TeV threshold. Even without low-scale discovery, supersymmetry remains important as a structure in supergravity and superstring theory, potentially broken at a higher scale, and as an exact calculational tool through superpotential non-renormalization, BPS states and control of strongly coupled quantum field theories.

For physical finite-spin one-particle states, a positive-energy Poincaré group representation is labelled by mass and spin $(m,j)$ when $m>0$, or mass and helicity $(0,h)$ when massless. The individual states also carry their four-momentum and a spin projection. For four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetry, the irreducible labels become $(m,j_{msuper})$, with $j_{msuper}$ the superspin, or $(0,h_{msuper})$, with a chosen superhelicity convention. The constituent representation labels arewith the last entry omitted for $j=0$, andA required CPT completion of a supermultiplet adds the conjugate labels $(0,-h),(0,-h-\frac{1}{2})$ and conjugates any internal charges.

Unbroken extended supersymmetry obstructs the observed chiral matter structure. In four dimensions, the matter hypermultiplets of $\mathcal{N}\ge 2$ theories contain conjugate gauge group representations, so their fermions are vectorlike rather than the chiral Weyl fermions of the Standard Model. Extended supersymmetry also relates interactions more strongly, restricting independent Yukawa couplings and superpotentials. It can occur at higher energies and break to $\mathcal{N}=1$ or to no supersymmetry; the objection is to its unbroken realization in an ordinary low-energy chiral particle theory.

In the supersymmetric Higgs mechanism, an internal gauge symmetry is broken by a charged scalar field expectation value while supersymmetry can remain unbroken. A massless vector multiplet absorbs a chiral multiplet to form a massive N=1 vector multiplet: the vector absorbs a scalar Goldstone boson, and the gaugino and matter fermion acquire the matching masses. In the super-Higgs mechanism, local supersymmetry itself is spontaneously broken: the gravitino absorbs the spin-$1/2$ Goldstino and becomes a massive spin-$3/2$ particle. In a flat vacuum this increases its physical states from two to four.

The supersymmetry algebra closes on spacetime translations. Its supercharges are Weyl spinors, andThus the composition of two odd supersymmetry transformations moves the spacetime argument. The generators also change spin and connect bosons with fermions. They extend the Poincaré group to the Super-Poincaré group, rather than forming an internal symmetry that commutes with spacetime transformations.

Dependence on Grassmann variables alone does not specify a superfield transformation law. A superfield is a function on superspace, with components transforming under the induced supertranslation and Lorentz transformation action. Any suitable superfunction can be an unconstrained superfield once equipped with that action; a fixed element of a Grassmann algebra with independently assigned components need not be covariant. A chiral superfield, for example,also obeys ${\bar{D}}_{\dot{\alpha }}\Phi =0$. Keeping only a nonconstant $A(x)$ and forbidding the other components is not a closed supermultiplet: applying a supercharge generates Grassmann-dependent derivative terms. A real unconstrained superfield can instead describe a vector superfield.

At two derivatives, specify the gauge group and matter representations, a real Kähler potential $K(\Phi ,\bar{\Phi })$, a holomorphic superpotential $W(\Phi )$ and a symmetric holomorphic gauge kinetic function $f_{ab}(\Phi )$. Gauge couplings and topological angles are contained in $f$; global theories can also have allowed Fayet–Iliopoulos terms for Abelian factors. Local theories require the gravitational coupling and consistent gauging: a constant Fayet–Iliopoulos term is not an independent addition to arbitrary supergravity data. A constant in $W$ affects supergravity although it is irrelevant in the global theory. $K$ is not holomorphic or protected; $W$ has no perturbative Wilsonian renormalization; holomorphic $f$ is perturbatively one-loop exact. Nonperturbative corrections can modify $W$ and $f$, and wave-function renormalization makes physical couplings run despite superpotential non-renormalization. Higher-derivative actions require further data.