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arXiv · 1307.6567

Supersymmetry on curved spaces and superconformal anomalies

Davide Cassani·Dario Martelli
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Abstract

We study the consequences of unbroken rigid supersymmetry of four-dimensional field theories placed on curved manifolds. We show that in Lorentzian signature the background vector field coupling to the R-current is determined by the Weyl tensor of the background metric. In Euclidean signature, the same holds if two supercharges of opposite R-charge are preserved, otherwise the (anti-)self-dual part of the vector field-strength is fixed by the Weyl tensor. As a result of this relation, the trace and R-current anomalies of superconformal field theories simplify, with the trace anomaly becoming purely topological. In particular, in Lorentzian signature, or in the presence of two Euclidean supercharges of opposite R-charge, supersymmetry of the background implies that the term proportional to the central charge c vanishes, both in the trace and R-current anomalies. This is equivalent to the vanishing of a superspace Weyl invariant. We comment on the implications of our results for holography.

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Davide Cassani, Dario Martelli. 2017-06-16. Supersymmetry on curved spaces and superconformal anomalies. https://doi.org/10.1007/jhep10(2013)025

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