Comments on Anomalies in Supersymmetric Theories

TL;DR

This paper examines the relationship between supersymmetric anomalies in superspace and Wess-Zumino gauges, showing they are equivalent up to a scheme choice and violations are removable.

Contribution

It establishes a one-to-one correspondence between anomaly solutions in superspace and WZ gauges, clarifying the role of counterterms in supersymmetric anomaly analysis.

Findings

Anomalies in superspace and WZ gauges are equivalent via a scheme choice.

Violations of Q-supersymmetry are due to removable counterterms.

The cohomology solutions in both formulations are in one-to-one correspondence.

Abstract

We analyse the relation between anomalies in their manifestly supersymmetric formulation in superspace and their formulation in Wess-Zumino (WZ) gauges. We show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between the solutions of the cohomology problem in the two formulations and that they are related by a particular choice of a superspace counterterm ("scheme"). Any apparent violation of $Q$-supersymmetry is due to an explicit violation by the counterterm which defines the scheme equivalent to the WZ gauge. It is therefore removable.