On Forms with Non-Abelian Charges and Their Dualities

We describe forms with non-Abelian charges. We avoid the use of theories with flat curvatures by working in the context of topological field theory. We obtain TQFTs for a form and its dual. We leave open the question of getting gauges in which the form, or its dual, can be gauged away, in such way that the model has two dual formulations. We give the example of charged two-forms in six dimensions.Comment: 11 pages, harvmac fil

Supersymmetry with a Ghost Time

The progress brought to the study of chiral fermions and gauge theories by quantization methods with a bulk time suggests their usefulness in supersymmetric theories. Using superspace methods, we show how an explicitly supersymmetric version of such quantization methods may be given.Comment: 6 page

Four twisted differential operators for the N=4 superconformal algebra

The N=4, d=4 Yang-Mills conformal supersymmetry exhibits a very simple sub-sector described by four differential operators. The invariance under this subalgebra is big enough to determine the N=4 theory. Some attempts are done to interpret these differential operators

N=4 Yang--Mills theory as a complexification of the N=2 theory

A complexification of the twisted $\N=2$ theory allows one to determine the N=4 Yang--Mills theory in its third twist formulation. The imaginary part of the gauge symmetry is used to eliminate two scalars fields and create gauge covariant longitudinal components for the imaginary part of the gauge field. The latter becomes the vector field of the thirdly twisted $\N=4$ theory. Eventually, one gets a one to one correspondence between the fields of both theories. Analogous complexifications can be done for topological 2d-gravity and topological sigma models

SU(5)-invariant decomposition of ten-dimensional Yang-Mills supersymmetry

The N=1,d=10 superYang-Mills action is constructed in a twisted form, using SU(5)-invariant decomposition of spinors in 10 dimensions. The action and its off-shell closed twisted scalar supersymmetry operator Q derive from a Chern-Simons term. The action can be decomposed as the sum of a term in the cohomology of Q and of a term that is Q-exact. The first term is a fermionic Chern-Simons term for a twisted component of the Majorana-Weyl gluino and it is related to the second one by a twisted vector supersymmetry with 5 parameters. The cohomology of Q and some topological observables are defined from descent equations. In this SU(5)<SO(10)$ invariant decomposition, the N=1, d=10 theory is determined by only 6 supersymmetry generators, as in the twisted N=4, d=4 theory. There is a superspace with 6 twisted fermionic directions, with solvable constraints.Comment: 10 page

Going down from a 3-form in 16 dimensions

Group theory indicates the existence of a $SO(8) X SO(7) \subset SO(16)$ invariant self-duality equation for a 3-form in 16 dimensions. It is a signal for interesting topological field theories, especially on 8-dimensional manifolds with holonomy group smaller than or equal to Spin(7), with a gauge symmetry that is SO(8) or SO(7). Dimensional reduction also provides new supersymmetric theories in 4 and lower dimensions, as well as a model with gravitational interactions in 8 dimensions, which relies on the octonionic gravitational self-duality equation.Comment: 14 page

Transmutation of Pure 2-D Supergravity Into Topological 2-D Gravity and Other Conformal Theories

We consider the BRST and superconformal properties of the ghost action of 2-D supergravity. Using the background spin structure on the worldsheet, we show that this action can be transformed by canonical field transformations to reach other conformal models such as the 2-D topological gravity or the chiral models for which the gauge variation of the action reproduces the left or right conformal anomaly. Our method consists in using the gravitino and its ghost as fundamental blocks to build fields with different conformal weights and statistics. This indicates in particular that the twisting of a conformal model into another one can be classically interpreted as a change of "field representation" of the superconformal symmetry.Comment: 20 pages, PAR-LPTHE 92-2