Symmetries of supergravity backgrounds and supersymmetric field theory

Abstract

In four spacetime dimensions, all N = 1 supergravity-matter systems can be formulated in the so-called U(1) superspace proposed by Howe in 1981. This paper is devoted to the study of those geometric structures which characterise a background U(1) superspace and are important in the context of supersymmetric field theory in curved space. We introduce (conformal) Killing tensor superfields ℓ(α1…αm)(α⋅1…α⋅n), with m and n non-negative integers, m + n > 0, and elaborate on their significance in the following cases: (i) m = n = 1; (ii) m − 1 = n = 0; and (iii) m = n > 1. The (conformal) Killing vector superfields ℓ αα⋅ generate the (conformal) isometries of curved superspace, which are symmetries of every (conformal) supersymmetric field theory. The (conformal) Killing spinor superfields ℓα generate extended (conformal) supersymmetry transformations. The (conformal) Killing tensor superfields with m = n > 1 prove to generate all higher symmetries of the (massless) massive Wess-Zumino operator.