Super gravity

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In theoretical physics, supergravity (SUGRA) describes a group of field theories that combine the principles of general relativity and supersymmetry .

Its first representative in four space-time dimensions was constructed in 1973 in Russia by Dmitri Wassiljewitsch Wolkow and Vjatscheslav Soroka and in 1976 in the West by Daniel Z. Freedman , Peter van Nieuwenhuizen and Sergio Ferrara . The graviton with spin  2 is assigned (at least) one fermionic super partner with spin 3/2, the so-called gravitino .

In extended-supersymmetric versions there are several gravitinos and other fields with lower spin. Such models often result as a dimensional reduction of higher-dimensional theories.

Ten-dimensional supergravity theories arise as borderline cases of superstring theories in the limit of vanishing string length and are classified into types I, IIA and IIB.

Eleven dimensional supergravity

The unambiguous eleven-dimensional supergravity with the highest possible number of dimensions (with only one temporal dimension) plays a special role, especially as a borderline case of the M-theory, which is superordinate to the superstring theories . The eleven-dimensional supergravity was proposed as the theory of everything even before the string theories , because after reduction to four dimensions it promised to be a finite theory of gravity , with enough quantum fields and symmetries to encompass the standard model of elementary particle physics . The finiteness of this theory has so far neither been proven nor definitely ruled out.

Original work

  • DV Volkov, VA Soroka: Higgs effect for Goldstone particles with spin 1/2 , Pis'ma v ZhETF, Volume 18, 1973, pp. 529-523 (Russian), English: JETP Letters, Volume 18, 1973, p. 312 -314.
  • DZ Freedman, P. van Nieuwenhuizen, S. Ferrara: Progress Toward A Theory Of Supergravity , Physical Review D, Volume 13, 1976, pp. 3214-3218.
  • E. Cremmer, B. Julia, J. Scherk: Supergravity theory in eleven dimensions , Physics Letters B, Volume 76, 1978, pp. 409-412.
  • P. van Nieuwenhuizen: Supergravity , Physics Reports, Volume 68, 1981, pp. 189-398.

literature

  • Sergio Ferrara, (et al.): Searching for the superworld. World Scientific, Singapore 2007, ISBN 978-981-270-018-6
  • Joseph L. Buchbinder (et al.): Ideas and methods of supersymmetry and supergravity - or A walk through superspace. Inst. Of Physics Publ., Bristol 1998, ISBN 0-7503-0506-1
  • Stefano Bellucci: Attractors and black holes in supersymmetric gravity. Volume 3 of Supersymmetric Mechanics. Springer, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-540-79522-3
  • Michael J. Duff: The world in eleven dimensions - supergravity, supermembranes and M-theory. Inst. Of Physics Publ., Bristol 1999, ISBN 0-7503-0671-8