Supergravity  

In General > s.a. Hypergravity; supersymmetry phenomenology.
* History: 1976, Proposed by Ferrara, Van Nieuwenhuizen & Freedman, and independently by Deser & Zumino; 2007, Indications that N = 8 supergravity may be perturbatively finite.
* Idea: A supergravity theory is a supersymmetric field theory in which supersymmetry is made into a local symmetry; It can be considered as another quantum field theory with special fields, or as a theory in superspace, with bosonic and fermionic (Grassmannian) coordinates, respectively (x, y, z, t) and ^{ i}, = 1... 4, i = 1 ... N.)
* Particle content and sectors: It involves fields of spin 0, 1/2, 1, 3/2 (gravitino; these are consistent only in sugra) and 2, and can only be implemented when gravity (curvature) is present; It has an observable sector with the standard model particles and their supersymmetric partners, and a hidden sector, coupled only gravitationallly to the observable one.
* Motivation: It was hoped that it would be a finite theory, because of cancellations, similarly to what happened for some supersymmetric gauge theories, but this hope has not materialized – it is non-renormalizable at three-loop level (does extended – N > 1 – supergravity offer hope?); It is a framework for the unification of all interactions.
* Features: It incorporates torsion, related to intrinsic angular momentum.
* Solutions: Any solution of a supergravity model contains an exact solution of the regular Einstein equation (with a peculiar coupling).

Versions > s.a. 2D gravity and 2D quantum gravity; Gauge Gravity; gödel spacetime; higher-order; topological; unimodular gravity.
* Most promising: N = 1 in 10D, with super-Yang-Mills fields.
* N = 1: Fermions and bosons come in pairs; The irreps of the supersymmetry algebra are doublets of spin 0-(1/2), (1/2)-1, (3/2)-2 (Majorana gravitino-graviton); There can be any number of these, but 1-(3/2) doublets give extended supergravity.
* N = 2: Unifies electromagnetism and gravity by adding a complex (Dirac) gravitino to the graviton, into one superparticle.
* N < 8: Generalized general relativity with 1 graviton and N gravitinos, rotating into each other under susy or global U(N).
* N > 8: Phenomenology no good; Higher spins (> 2) and more than 1 graviton.
@ N = 1: Chee GRG(98), Fülöp CQG(94)gq/93 [self-dual and anti-self-dual]; Page ht/93 [inconsistency]; Bagger et al NPB(01)ht/00 [4D, Einstein-frame quantum inconsistency]; Ling & Smolin PRD(01)ht/00 [holographic].
@ N = 2: Ferrara & van Nieuwenhuizen PRL(76).
@ N = 8: Bern et al PLB(07) [uv finiteness], PRL(07) [perturbative finiteness].
@ N > 8: Nicolai & Samtleben NPB(98)ht [2D, N = 16]; Nishino & Gates CQG(00)ht/99 [type IIA*].
@ Broken sugra and super-Higgs: Deser & Zumino PRL(77); Cremmer et al PLB(79).
@ Conformal sugra: Lindström & Rocek PRL(89); Chee & Jia GRG(01)gq/00 [Ashtekar variables].
@ Self-dual sugra: Devchand & Ogievetsky NPB(95).
@ 11-dimensional: Deser ht/98-in; Ling & Smolin NPB(01)ht/00 [as constrained topological field theory]; Miemiec & Schnakenburg FdP(06)ht/05 [rev].
@ Other versions: Deser & Kay PLB(83) [topologically massive]; Duff et al PRP(86) [Kaluza-Klein version]; García-Compeán et al PRD(99)ht/98, [MacDowell-Mansouri theory, dual]; Chandia et al ht/99-in [Chern-Simons version]; Julia & Silva JHEP(00)ht/99 [first-order]; Binétruy et al PRP(01) [couplings]; Salgado et al PRD(02)gq/01 [Poincaré invariant 4D]; Djeghloul & Tahiri MPLA(00)ht/02 [quantum action]; Allen ht/03-in [Lorentz-violating]; van Nieuwenhuizen ht/04-in [simple model]; Celi et al PRD(05)ht/04 [fake sugra]; Giacomini et al CQG(07)ht/06 [3D].

References > s.a. branes; particle types [gravitino]; string phenomenology; susy phenomenology.
@ Precursor: Rarita & Schwinger PR(41); & Volkov & Soroka [Soroka ht/01-in].
@ General: Freedman et al PRD(76); Deser & Zumino PLB(76); Grisaru PLB(77); Deser et al PRL(77), PRD(77); Tabensky & Teitelboim PLB(77) [from sqrt of general relativity]; Ferrara & van Nieuwenhuizen PLB(78), PLB(78), PLB(78); Baranov et al TMP(85); Brandt FdP(02)ht-ln; de Wit ht/02-ln; van Nieuwenhuizen ht/04-in [intro]; Gauntlett ht/05-in [classifying solutions].
@ Textbooks and reviews: van Nieuwenhuizen in(77); Freedman & van Nieuwenhuizen SA(79)feb; van Nieuwenhuizen & Freedman ed-79; Ferrara pr(80); Hawking & Rocek 81; Cremmer in(81); van Nieuwenhuizen PRP(81); Julia 85; Castellani et al 86; Jacob ed-86; Srivastava 86; Gibbons pr; Casati et al 91; Buchbinder & Kuzenko 95 [IIIb]; Tanii ht/98 [various dimensions]; Van Proeyen ht/03-in.
@ Dimensional reduction: Lavrinenko et al CQG(98).
@ Solutions: Gauntlett et al CQG(03) [5D]; Gutowski et al CQG(03) [6D]; > s.a. black holes; general relativity solutions, instantons, monopoles, solitons; topological defects.
@ Boundary conditions: Hawking PLB(83); Esposito PLB(96); Belyaev JHEP(06) [with boundary]; van Nieuwenhuizen & Vassilevich CQG(05)ht; Van Nieuwenhuizen et al IJMPD(06).
@ And spacetime symmetries: Vandyck GRG(88), GRG(88), GRG(89), GRG(90), GRG(93); > s.a. symmetry.
@ FRW cosmology: Bertolami & Schiappa CQG(99)gq/98 [N = 1]; Tkach et al CQG(99) [with complex scalar].
@ Other cosmology: Kallosh ht/02-in [rev]; > s.a. AdS; bianchi I and bianchi IX; cosmology [future]; quintessence.
@ Quantization, perturbative: Bern et al PRD(08) [possible uv finiteness].
@ Related topics: Ferrara et al NPB(76) [matter couplings].

Canonical Form and Quantization > s.a. [approaches to quantum gravity]; renormalization; time in quantum gravity.
@ Classical: Pilati NPB(78).
@ Euclidean: Vancea PRL(97), Ciuhu & Vancea IJMPA(00)gq/98 [observables, ito Dirac eigenvalues].
@ Constraints: Teitelboim PRL(77); Gorobey & Lukyanenko CQG(89) [complex self-dual, closure of constraints]; Wulf IJMPD(97)gq/96 [N = 1, non-closure]; Pauna & Vancea MPLA(98) [ito Dirac eigenvalues].
@ Canonical quantization: Fradkin & Vasiliev PLB(77); D'Eath PRD(84); Carroll et al NPB(94)ht [physical states]; D'Eath IJMPD(96).
@ Connection / loop variables: Jacobson CQG(88); Gorobey & Lukyanenko CQG(90); Matschull CQG(94); Ezawa PTP(96)ht/95 [as BF theory]; Armand-Ugón et al NPB(96)ht/95 [loop variables]; Nieto et al PRL(96) [self-dual spin connection]; Urrutia ht/96-in; Melosch & Nicolai PLB(98)ht/97; Ootsuka et al CQG(99)gq/98 [N = 2]; Tsuda & Shirafuji CQG(99)gq/98, PRD(00)gq [N = 2]; Ling & Smolin PRD(00)ht/99, Ling JMP(02)ht/00-MG9 [spin networks]; Tsuda PRD(00)gq/99 [N = 1]; Tsuda gq/04 [N = 3 chiral]; Kaul PRD(08)-a0711 [Holst action with Immirzi parameter, no change in equations of motion].
> Spacific models: see gowdy spacetime; graviton; minisuperspace.


Main pageAbbreviationsJournalsCommentsOther sitesAcknowledgements
Send feedback and suggestions to bombelli at olemiss.edu – Modified 11 jul 2008