N=2 Rigid Supersymmetry with Gauged Central Charge

TL;DR

This paper develops a framework for N=2 rigid supersymmetric theories with gauged central charge in harmonic superspace, presenting universal actions and couplings for various multiplets, including hypermultiplets and vector-tensor multiplets.

Contribution

It introduces a universal supersymmetric action for N=2 theories with gauged central charge and details Chern-Simons couplings in harmonic superspace, extending previous models.

Findings

Universal supersymmetric action formulated for N=2 theories with gauged central charge.

Explicit Chern-Simons couplings for vector-tensor multiplets provided.

Connection between six-dimensional theories and four-dimensional vector-tensor multiplets established.

Abstract

We develop a general setting for N=2 rigid supersymmetric field theories with gauged central charge in harmonic superspace. We consider those N=2 multiplets which have a finite number of off-shell components and exist off shell owing to a non-trivial central charge. This class includes, in particular, the hypermultiplet with central charge and various versions of the vector-tensor multiplet. For such theories we present a manifestly supersymmetric universal action. Chern-Simons couplings to an external N=2 super Yang-Mills multiplet are given, in harmonic superspace, for both the linear and nonlinear vector-tensor multiplets with gauged central charge. We show how to deduce the linear version of the vector-tensor multiplet from six dimensions.