Deformations of Supergravity and Supersymmetry Anomalies

TL;DR

This paper analyzes supersymmetry anomalies in $ ext{N}=1$ supergravity coupled to matter, showing how anomalies can be removed by deforming the BRST operator and providing explicit cohomological characterizations.

Contribution

It introduces a cohomological framework for understanding and removing supersymmetry anomalies via BRST operator deformations in supergravity theories.

Findings

Existence of a non-trivial supersymmetry anomaly cocycle

Anomaly can be removed by deforming the BRST operator

Explicit computation of the first-order deformation operator

Abstract

We present a BRST analysis of supersymmetry anomalies of $\mathcal{N} = 1$ supersymmetric quantum field theories with anomalous R symmetry. To this end, we consider the coupling of the matter theory to classical $\mathcal{N} = 1$ new minimal supergravity. We point out that a supersymmetry anomaly cocycle associated to the $\mathrm{U}(1){}_\mathrm{R}$ field does exist for this theory. It is non-trivial in the space of supergravity fields (and ghosts), but it becomes BRST-exact in the functional space that includes antifields. Equivalently, the $\mathrm{U}(1){}_\mathrm{R}$ supersymmetry anomaly cocycle vanishes "on-shell". It is therefore removable. However, to remove it -- precisely because it is not trivial in the smaller space of fields -- one needs to deform the supergravity BRST operator. This deformation is triggered, at first order in the anomaly coefficient, by a local operator $S_1$ of ghost number 1. We give a cohomological characterization of $S_1$ and compute it in full detail. At higher orders in the anomaly coefficient, we expect a priori that further deformations of the BRST rules are necessary.