Supersymmetry of the magnetic vortex

The N=2 supersymmetry of the Pauli Hamiltonian in any static magnetic field in the plane combines, for the magnetic vortex, with Jackiw's bosonic $o(2)\times o(2,1)$ symmetry, into an $o(2)\times osp(1/2)$ dynamical supersymmetry.Comment: 4 pages. Originally Tours Preprint no 60/93 (1993). Unpublishe

Chiral fermions as classical massless spinning particles

Semiclassical chiral fermion models with Berry term are studied in a symplectic framework. In the free case, the system can be obtained from Souriau's model for a relativistic massless spinning particle by "enslaving" the spin. The Berry term is identified with the classical spin two-form of the latter model. The Souriau model carries a natural Poincar\'e symmetry that we highlight, but spin enslavement breaks the boost symmetry. However the relation between the models allows us to derive a Poincare symmetry of unconventional form for chiral fermions. Then we couple our system to an external electromagnetic field. For gyromagnetic ratio $g=0$ we get curious superluminal Hall-type motions; for $g=2$ and in a pure constant magnetic field in particular, we find instead spiraling motions.Comment: Substantially revised and extended version. 31 pages, 5 figures. Details clarified and references added. To be published in PR

On Schr\"odinger superalgebras

We construct, using the supersymplectic framework of Berezin, Kostant and others, two types of supersymmetric extensions of the Schr\"odinger algebra (itself a conformal extension of the Galilei algebra). An `$I$-type' extension exists in any space dimension, and for any pair of integers $N_+$ and $N_-$. It yields an $N=N_++N_-$ superalgebra, which generalizes the N=1 supersymmetry Gauntlett et al. found for a free spin-\half particle, as well as the N=2 supersymmetry of the fermionic oscillator found by Beckers et al. In two space dimensions, new, `exotic' or `$IJ$-type' extensions arise for each pair of integers $\nu_+$ and $\nu_-$, yielding an $N=2(\nu_++\nu_-)$ superalgebra of the type discovered recently by Leblanc et al. in non relativistic Chern-Simons theory. For the magnetic monopole the symmetry reduces to \o(3)\times\osp(1/1), and for the magnetic vortex it reduces to \o(2)\times\osp(1/2).Comment: On Schr\"odinger superalgebras, no figurs. Published versio

Strings in plane-fronted gravitational waves

Brinkmann's plane-fronted gravitational waves with parallel rays --~shortly pp-waves~-- are shown to provide, under suitable conditions, exact string vacua at all orders of the sigma-model perturbation expansion.Comment: 7 pages, no figure