Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2014 / iii / Paper 43 / 1

Use the hypercharge normalization $Q_{\mathrm{electric}}=T^3+Y$. All matter chiral superfields are written with left-handed Weyl spinors, so the fields denoted by a superscript $c$ contain the charge conjugates of the usual right-handed Standard Model fermions. The MSSM superfield representations areEach fermion generation contributes the first five chiral superfields. Their complex scalar field partners are squarks for the quarks and sleptons for the leptons. Each Higgs chiral doublet contains a Higgs complex scalar field and a higgsino. Every chiral superfield also has a complex auxiliary field. The vector superfields areThey contain the corresponding gauge bosons, gauginos in the Adjoint representation, and real auxiliary fields. A right-handed neutrino chiral superfield is not part of the minimal field content.

A gauge anomaly is a quantum obstruction to a classical gauge symmetry. For hypercharge, triangle diagrams with left-handed Weyl spinors can violate the Ward identity of the gauge boson; an uncancelled gauge anomaly makes the gauge theory inconsistent. Anomaly cancellation sums over every component, including colour and weak multiplicities. Complex scalar fields do not contribute to these chiral gauge anomalies. For one fermion generation, the cubic hypercharge coefficient isThe other coefficients involving a hypercharge gauge boson vanish too. With the fundamental index $T(\mathbf{N})=1/2$,The last line is the mixed gauge-gravitational anomaly. Coefficients with one non-Abelian generator and two hypercharge generators vanish by tracelessness. For completeness, the purely colour cubic gauge anomaly cancels between the two fundamental quark components and the two antifundamentals; the weak group has no perturbative cubic gauge anomaly. Its four left-handed doublets per fermion generation also avoid the Witten SU(2) anomaly. Thus each family is separately anomaly-free, not merely their sum.

The gauginos do not spoil this result: their hypercharge is zero and their Adjoint representation is real. One extra Higgs chiral doublet is different because its higgsino is chiral. For $H_u$, its contributions areThey have no compensating contribution from the Higgs complex scalar field. The higgsino in $H_d$ supplies precisely the negative of each coefficient. Opposite-hypercharge Higgs chiral doublets restore anomaly cancellation. The same pair restores an even number of weak fermion doublets, so the Witten SU(2) anomaly provides an additional check of the higgsino anomaly cancellation.

The independent reason is the holomorphic need for two Higgs chiral doublets. A superpotential is a holomorphic function of chiral superfields, so it cannot use a conjugate Higgs superfield to generate the missing Yukawa couplings. The ordinary Standard Model can use a Higgs scalar and its conjugate, but the MSSM needs distinct chiral superfields of both hypercharges. For example,where the dot contracts weak indices with the antisymmetric tensor. All three terms are gauge-invariant holomorphic functions. $H_u$ supplies up-type masses, while $H_d$ supplies down-type and charged-lepton masses. Replacing either by the conjugate of the other would violate the holomorphic closure of chiral superfields.