Linear and Chiral Superfields are Usefully Inequivalent

TL;DR

This paper proves that linear and chiral superfields are fundamentally inequivalent, challenging common assumptions and enabling new interpretations in superstring theory.

Contribution

It demonstrates the fundamental inequivalence between linear and chiral superfields, clarifying their distinct roles in supersymmetry and superstring theory.

Findings

Linear and chiral superfields are not physically equivalent.

The inequivalence allows new interpretations of superstring low-energy limits.

Chiral superfields have been overused, ignoring the significance of linear superfields.

Abstract

Chiral superfields have been used, and extensively, almost ever since supersymmetry has been discovered. Complex linear superfields afford an alternate representation of matter, but are widely misbelieved to be 'physically equivalent' to chiral ones. We prove the opposite is true. Curiously, this re-enables a previously thwarted interpretation of the low-energy (super)field limit of superstrings.