On the Hidden Maxwell Superalgebra underlying D=4 Supergravity

Abstract

In this work, we expand the hidden $AdS$-Lorentz superalgebra underlying $D=4$ supergravity, reaching a (hidden) Maxwell superalgebra. The latter can be viewed as an extension involving cosmological constant of the superalgebra underlying $D=4$ supergravity in flat spacetime. We write the Maurer-Cartan equations in this context and we find some interesting extensions of the antisymmetric $3$-form $A^{(3)}$ appearing in the Free Differential Algebra in Minkowski space. The structure of Free Differential Algebras is obtained by considering the zero curvature equations. We write the parametrization of $A^{(3)}$ in terms of $1$-forms and we rend the topological features of its extensions manifest. We interestingly find out that the structure of these extensions, and consequently the structure of the corresponding boundary contribution $dA^{(3)}$, strongly depends on the form of the extra fermionic generator appearing in the hidden Maxwell superalgebra. The model we develop in this work is defined in an enlarged superspace with respect to the ordinary one, and the extra bosonic and fermionic $1$-forms required for the closure of the hidden Maxwell superalgebra must be considered as physical fields in this enlarged superspace.