TASI 2012: Super-Tricks for Superspace

TL;DR

This paper provides an introductory yet comprehensive overview of superspace and supersymmetry in four-dimensional spacetime, including advanced techniques for constructing SUSY Lagrangians and handling non-linear realizations.

Contribution

It introduces a systematic development of superspace tools and presents novel 'super-tricks' for constructing and analyzing supersymmetric theories.

Findings

Detailed derivation of superspace formalism

Introduction of SUSY-covariant derivatives and equations of motion in superspace

Methods for non-linear realizations of goldstinos

Abstract

These lectures from the TASI 2012 summer school outline the basics of supersymmetry (SUSY) in 3+1 dimensions. Starting from a ground-up development of superspace, we develop all of the tools necessary to construct SUSY lagrangians. While aimed at an introductory level, these lectures incorporate a number of "super-tricks" for SUSY aficionados, including SUSY-covariant derivatives, equations of motion in superspace, background field methods, and non-linear realizations of goldstinos.