On Supermultiplet Twisting and Spin-Statistics

TL;DR

This paper explores the phenomenon of supermultiplet twisting in higher-dimensional supersymmetric models, revealing that non-trivial twisting generally converts regular supermultiplets into ghost supermultiplets, especially in models with constraints.

Contribution

It demonstrates that supermultiplet twisting in four or more dimensions necessarily maps regular supermultiplets to ghost supermultiplets, extending previous 2D findings.

Findings

Supermultiplet twisting maps regular to ghost supermultiplets in higher dimensions.

Twisting is ubiquitous in off-shell supersymmetric models with constraints.

Non-trivial twisting in higher dimensions always involves ghost supermultiplets.

Abstract

Twisting of off-shell supermultiplets in models with 1+1-dimensional spacetime has been discovered in 1984, and was shown to be a generic feature of off-shell representations in worldline supersymmetry two decades later. It is shown herein that in all supersymmetric models with spacetime of four or more dimensions, this off-shell supermultiplet twisting, if non-trivial, necessarily maps regular (non-ghost) supermultiplets to ghost supermultiplets. This feature is shown to be ubiquitous in all fully off-shell supersymmetric models with (BV/BRST-treated) constraints.