Three form potential in (special) minimal supergravity superspace and supermembrane supercurrent

TL;DR

This paper develops a superfield Lagrangian framework for describing the interaction between D=4 N=1 supergravity and supermembranes, emphasizing a special minimal supergravity formulation with a three-form potential in superspace.

Contribution

It introduces a superfield approach to supergravity-supermembrane interactions using special minimal supergravity with a three-form potential, and derives supercurrent superfields and equations of motion.

Findings

Supercurrent superfields are derived from supermembrane variations.

The supergravity formulation includes a dynamical cosmological constant.

The supermembrane action naturally incorporates a three-form potential in superspace.

Abstract

This contribution begins the study of the complete superfield Lagrangian description of the interacting system of D=4 N=1 supergravity (SUGRA) and supermembrane. Firstly, we review a 'three form supergravity' by Ovrut and Waldram, which we prefer to call 'special minimal supergravity'. This off-shell formulation of simple SUGRA is appropriate for our purposes as the supermembrane action contains the so-called Wess-Zumino term given by the integral over a three form potential in superspace, C3. We describe this formulation in the frame of Wess--Zumino superfield approach, showing how the basic variations of minimal SUGRA are restricted by the conditions of the existence of a three-form potential C3 in its superspace. In this language the effect of dynamical generation of cosmological constant, known to be characteristic for this formulation of SUGRA, appears in its superfield form, first described by Ogievetsky and Sokatchev in their formulation of SUGRA as a theory of axial vector superfield. Secondly, we vary the supermembrane action with respect to the special minimal SUGRA superfields (basic variations) and obtain the supercurrent superfields as well as the supergravity superfield equations with the supermembrane contributions.