Harmonic Superspace

The inventors of harmonic superspace present a clear account of the theory and its applications.

A. S. Galperin (Author), E. A. Ivanov (Author), V. I. Ogievetsky (Author), E. S. Sokatchev (Author)

9780521020428, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 22 February 2007

324 pages, 20 b/w illus. 3 tables
24.3 x 16.8 x 1.6 cm, 0.519 kg

'… it deserves a place in every theoretical physics and mathematics library. It is clearly all set to become the standard work on all things pertaining to Harmonic Superspace … this is a book that people will want to go back to.' Contemporary Physics

This is a pedagogical introduction to the harmonic superspace method in extended supersymmetry. Inspired by exciting developments in superstring theory, it provides a systematic treatment of the quantum field theories with N=2 and N=3 supersymmetry in harmonic superspace. The authors present the harmonic superspace approach as a means of providing an off-shell description of the N=2 supersymmetric theories, both at the classical and quantum levels. Furthermore, they show how it offers a unique way to construct an off-shell formulation of a theory with higher supersymmetry, namely the N=3 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Harmonic Superspace makes manifest many remarkable geometric properties of the N=2 theories, for example, the one-to-one correspondence between N=2 supersymmetric matter, and hyper-Kähler and quaternionic manifolds. This book will be of interest to researchers and graduate students working in the areas of supersymmetric quantum field theory, string theory and complex geometries.

Preface
1. Introductory overview
2. Elements of supersymmetry
3. Superspace
4. Harmonic analysis
5. N=2 matter with infinite sets of auxiliary fields
6. N=2 matter multiplets with a finite number of auxiliary fields. N=2 duality transformations
7. Supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories
8. Harmonic supergraphs
9. Conformal invariance in N=2 harmonic superspace
10. Supergravity
11. Hyper-Kähler geometry in harmonic space
12. N=3 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory
13. Conclusions
Appendix. Notations, conventions and useful formulas
References
Index.

Subject Areas: Physics [PH]