The 0-brane action in a general D=4 supergravity background

TL;DR

This paper constructs the superparticle action in various supergravity backgrounds, incorporating kappa-supersymmetry, and relates it to BPS black holes and string theory compactifications, extending to higher supersymmetries.

Contribution

It provides a general superparticle action in N=2 and N=8 supergravity backgrounds with kappa-supersymmetry, linking to black hole sources and Calabi-Yau compactifications.

Findings

Superparticle action formulated in N=2 supergravity with special Kahler geometry.

Extension of the action to N=8 supergravity with partial supersymmetry.

Connection established between the superparticle action and BPS black hole sources.

Abstract

We begin by presenting the superparticle action in the background of N=2, D=4 supergravity coupled to n vector multiplets interacting via an arbitrary special Kahler geometry. Our construction is based on implementing kappa-supersymmetry. In particular, our result can be interpreted as the source term for N=2 BPS black holes with a finite horizon area. When the vector multiplets can be associated to the complex structure moduli of a Calabi-Yau manifold, then our 0-brane action can be derived by wrapping 3-branes around 3-cycles of the 3-fold. Our result can be extended to the case of higher supersymmetry; we explicitly construct the kappa supersymmetric action for a superparticle moving in an arbitrary N=8 supergravity background with 1/2, 1/4 or 1/8 residual supersymmetry.