A New Description of the Superstring

TL;DR

This paper reviews a new, manifestly spacetime-supersymmetric superstring description with N=2 worldsheet supersymmetry, offering advantages for four-dimensional compactifications and relating to the standard RNS formulation.

Contribution

It introduces a new superstring formulation with N=2 worldsheet supersymmetry that simplifies four-dimensional compactifications and relates to the RNS description through a field redefinition.

Findings

Contains N=2 worldsheet supersymmetry.

Makes SO(3,1) super-Poincaré invariance manifest.

Provides a convenient framework for 4D superstring compactifications.

Abstract

This is a review of the new manifestly spacetime-supersymmetric description of the superstring. The new description contains N=2 worldsheet supersymmetry, and is related by a field redefinition to the standard RNS description. It is especially convenient for four-dimensional compactifications since SO(3,1) super-Poincar\'e invariance can be made manifest. Parts of this work have been done in collaboration with Warren Siegel and Cumrun Vafa. This review is based on lectures given at the VIII J.A. Swieca summer school and should be easily accesible to anyone familiar with the RNS superstring description.