05.12.2012 (Wednesday)

Curved geometries for rigid supersymmetry

Regular Seminar Davide Cassani (King's College)

at:
14:00 IC
room H503
abstract:

Supersymmetry on curved spaces has recently attracted much attention, mainly as a tool towards the exact computation of quantum field theory observables via localization. Taking a holographic perspective, I will discuss how the conditions for rigid supersymmetry to be preserved on a curved boundary arise from the bulk supergravity Killing spinor equations. In particular, I will show that a four-dimensional superconformal field theory can be put on a curved, Lorentzian spacetime if and only if this admits a null conformal Killing vector. For a supersymmetric field theory with an R-symmetry, not necessarily conformal, the vector is further restricted to be Killing. After having presented some illustrative examples, I will conclude comparing with the Euclidean case.