Supersymmetric P(X,phi) and the Ghost Condensate

TL;DR

This paper develops a method to construct supersymmetric actions for higher-derivative scalar theories, including the ghost condensate, enabling analysis of supersymmetry in non-standard cosmological backgrounds.

Contribution

It introduces a general formalism for supersymmetrizing P(X,phi) theories and applies it to the ghost condensate, linking supersymmetry with null energy condition violations.

Findings

Supersymmetric versions of P(X,phi) actions are constructed.

Supersymmetric ghost condensate models are formulated.

The formalism facilitates studying supersymmetry in time-dependent backgrounds.

Abstract

We show how to construct supersymmetric actions for higher-derivative scalar field theories of the form P(X,phi), within the context of d=4, N=1 supersymmetry. This construction is of general use, and is applied to write supersymmetric versions of the Dirac-Born-Infeld action. Our principal application of this formalism is to construct the supersymmetric extension of the ghost condensate. This allows us to study the interplay between supersymmetry, time-dependent backgrounds and violations of the null energy condition.