Superspace First-order Formalism for Massless Arbitrary Superspin Supermultiplets

A new description of free massless superfields of arbitrary superspin $Y$ ($Y>1/2$) is proposed. Following the first-order philosophy, we relax some of the properties (reality, gauge redundancy) of the unconstrained higher spin prepotentials and we construct first and half order invariants quantities. These are used to write trivially invariant actions. Additional auxiliary superfields that play the role of spin connections are used to enforce a new local symmetry that restores the degrees of freedom

A Codicil To Massless Gauge Superfields of Higher Half-Odd Integer Superspins

We study theories of 4D, N=1 supersymmetric massless, arbitrary higher half odd-integer superspins. A new series of such theories is found to exist for arbitrary superspin Y (Y=s+1/2 for any integer s). The lowest member (s=1) of the series is the original off-shell formulation of 4D, N=1 supergravity first presented by Breitenlohner in 1977

Linearized Non-Minimal Higher Curvature Supergravity

In the framework of linearized non-minimal supergravity (20/20), we present the embedding of the $R + R^2$ model and we analyze its field spectrum. As usual, the auxiliary fields of the Einstein theory now become propagating, giving rise to additional degrees of freedom, which organize themselves into on-shell irreducible supermultiplets. By performing the analysis both in component and superspace formulations we identify the new supermultiplets. On top of the two massive chiral superfields reminiscent of the old-minimal supergravity embedding, the spectrum contains also a consistent physical, massive, vector supermultiplet and a tachyonic ghost, massive, vector supermultiplet

Nonlinear N=2{\cal N}=2 Supersymmetry and 3D Supersymmetric Born-Infeld Theory

D$p$-branes acquire effective nonlinear descriptions whose bosonic part is related to the Born-Infeld action. This nonlinearity has been proven to be a consequence of the partial ${\cal N}=2\to{\cal N}=1$ supersymmetry breaking, originating from the solitonic nature of the branes. In this work, we focus on the effective descriptions of D2-branes. Using the Goldstone multiplet interpretation of the action and the method of nilpotent ${\cal N}=2$ superfields, we construct the 3D, ${\cal N}=1$ superspace effective action which makes the first supersymmetry manifest and realizes the second, spontaneously broken, supersymmetry nonlinearly. We show that there are two such supersymmetric extensions of the 3D Born-Infeld action which correspond to the dynamics of the 3D Maxwell-Goldstone multiplet and the 3D projection of the Tensor-Goldstone multiplet respectively. Moreover, we demonstrate that these results are derived by applying the constrained superfield approach on the ${\cal N}=2, D=3$ vector and chiral multiplets after expanding them around a nontrivial vacuum. We find that these two descriptions are related by a duality transformation which results in the inversion of a dimensionless parameter. For both descriptions we derive the explicit bosonic and fermionic parts of the 3D super Born-Infeld action. Finally, consider the deformation of the Maxwell-Goldstone superspace action by the characteristic Chern-Simons-like, gauge invariant, mass term

Higher Spin Superfield interactions with the Chiral Supermultiplet: Conserved Supercurrents and Cubic Vertices

We investigate cubic interactions between a chiral superfield and higher spin superfield corresponding to irreducible representations of the $4D,\, \mathcal{N}=1$ super-Poincar\'{e} algebra. We do this by demanding an invariance under the most general transformation, linear in the chiral superfield. Following Noether's method we construct an infinite tower of higher spin supercurrent multiplets which are quadratic in the chiral superfield and include higher derivatives. The results are that a single, massless, chiral superfield can couple only to the half-integer spin supermultiplets $(s+1,s+1/2)$ and for every value of spin there is an appropriate improvement term that reduces the supercurrent multiplet to a minimal multiplet which matches that of superconformal higher spins. On the other hand a single, massive, chiral superfield can couple only to higher spin supermultiplets of type $(2l+2\hspace{0.3ex},\hspace{0.1ex}2l+3/2)$ and there is no minimal multiplet. Furthermore, for the massless case we discuss the component level higher spin currents and provide explicit expressions for the integer and half-integer spin conserved currents together with a R-symmetry current