New Gauged N=8, D=4 Supergravities

TL;DR

This paper constructs new four-dimensional N=8 supergravity theories with novel gauge groups using a dual form of the ungauged action, revealing theories with Minkowski vacua and partial supersymmetry preservation.

Contribution

It introduces a dual formulation of N=8 supergravity that enables gauging of new non-semi-simple groups, expanding the landscape of consistent supergravity models.

Findings

New gaugings with Minkowski vacua preserving N=2 supersymmetry.

Gauge groups are non-semi-simple real forms of $CSO(2p,8-2p)$.

Dimensional reduction relates 5D and 4D gauged supergravities.

Abstract

New gaugings of four dimensional N=8 supergravity are constructed, including one which has a Minkowski space vacuum that preserves N=2 supersymmetry and in which the gauge group is broken to $SU(3)xU(1)^2$. Previous gaugings used the form of the ungauged action which is invariant under a rigid $SL(8,R)$ symmetry and promoted a 28-dimensional subgroup ($SO(8),SO(p,8-p)$ or the non-semi-simple contraction $CSO(p,q,8-p-q)$) to a local gauge group. Here, a dual form of the ungauged action is used which is invariant under $SU^*(8)$ instead of $SL(8,R)$ and new theories are obtained by gauging 28-dimensional subgroups of $SU^*(8)$. The gauge groups are non-semi-simple and are different real forms of the $CSO(2p,8-2p)$ groups, denoted $CSO^*(2p,8-2p)$, and the new theories have a rigid SU(2) symmetry. The five dimensional gauged N=8 supergravities are dimensionally reduced to D=4. The $D=5,SO(p,6-p)$ gauge theories reduce, after a duality transformation, to the $D=4,CSO(p,6-p,2)$ gauging while the $SO^*(6)$ gauge theory reduces to the $D=4, CSO^*(6,2)$ gauge theory. The new theories are related to the old ones via an analytic continuation. The non-semi-simple gaugings can be dualised to forms with different gauge groups.