Compensating Fields and Anomalies in Supergravity

TL;DR

This paper examines the quantization of supergravity theories with compensating fields, revealing that certain formulations, like new minimal supergravity, are generally anomalous due to on-shell constraints and elimination issues.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the quantization process for supergravity with compensating fields and identifies anomalies in the new minimal supergravity formulation.

Findings

New minimal supergravity is generally anomalous.

On-shell constraints arise from compensating field elimination.

Quantization issues relate to the relation between component and superspace formulations.

Abstract

We discuss the quantization of theories which are formulated using compensating fields. In particular, we discuss the relation between the components formulation and the superspace formulation of supergravity theories. The requirement that the compensating field can be eliminated at the quantum level gives rise to on-shell constraints on the operators of the theory. In some cases, the constraints turn out to be physically unacceptable. Using these considerations we show that new minimal supergravity is in general anomalous.