Questions tagged [supersymmetry]

The tag has no usage guidance.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
5 votes
1 answer
390 views

About the quantum spectrum of a certain potential.

Intuitively one understands that if one is solving the Schroedinger's equation for energies $E$ such that $\{ x \vert U(x)\leq E \}$ is compact (..is there a weaker criteria?..) then the spectrum ...
Anirbit's user avatar
  • 3,453
25 votes
2 answers
936 views

Is super-vector spaces a "universal central extension" of vector spaces?

Is there some sense in which the category $sVect$ of super-vector spaces is the "maximal non-trivial extension" of $Vect$ as a symmetric monoidal category? Is the $\mathbb Z/2$ that shows up in the ...
André Henriques's user avatar
25 votes
2 answers
2k views

What does the Tannakian formalism reconstruct when fed the category of chain complexes?

I've recently realized that there is a gap in my understanding of the Tannakian formalism for reconstructing an (algebraic) group from its category of (finite-dimensional) representations. To warm up,...
Theo Johnson-Freyd's user avatar
9 votes
1 answer
2k views

I don't get a part of Bernstein's / Deligne-Morgan's proof of Poincaré-Birkhoff-Witt

Question: I am talking about the proof given on pages 50-52 of Pierre Deligne, Pavel Etingof, Daniel S. Freed, Lisa C. Jeffrey, David Kazhdan, John W. Morgan, David R. Morrison, and Edward Witten (...
darij grinberg's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

Witten Index, letter partition function and superconformal representations.

Except in a few papers I have seen so little written about this that I am not sure I can even frame this question properly. I would like to know of expository references and explanations on the ...
Anirbit's user avatar
  • 3,453
0 votes
1 answer
920 views

Clifford Algebra and Gamma matrices: is this relation generally true for any dimension?

I expect the following relation to be vanishing. But it seems not that obvious. $\Gamma_{ab}^{\lambda}t^at^b \Gamma_{\lambda c(d)}t^c=0$ where $t^a$ are even ghosts, "$ab$" are indices for matrix ...
Osiris's user avatar
  • 161
3 votes
2 answers
665 views

Change of coordinates introduced through dx

Hi, I have a superspace spanned by 4 commuting coordinates + 2 anti-commuting ones $\{x^\mu,\theta^\alpha\}$, I have to do the change of coordinates $dx^\mu\to dy^\mu= dx^\mu+d\theta^\alpha \eta_\...
Pedro's user avatar
  • 733
7 votes
1 answer
1k views

N=(2,2) supersymmetry in two-dimensional Euclidean space

Can anyone describe (or give a reference for) the 2d superspace formulation of N=(2,2) SUSY in Euclidean signature? I'm reading Hori's excellent introduction to QFT in the book 'Mirror symmetry', and ...
Ed Segal's user avatar
  • 460
17 votes
2 answers
831 views

What is the conceptual significance of supercommutativity?

A $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$-graded algebra is said to supercommute if $xy = (-1)^{|x| |y|} yx$; in other words, odd elements anticommute. Why is this the "right" definition of supercommutativity? (...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
19 votes
3 answers
1k views

Does the super Temperley-Lieb algebra have a Z-form?

Background Let V denote the standard (2-dimensional) module for the Lie algebra sl2(C), or equivalently for the universal envelope U = U(sl2(C)). The Temperley-Lieb algebra TLd is the algebra of ...
Sammy Black's user avatar
  • 1,746
11 votes
1 answer
479 views

3/4-Lie superalgebras: how much of a theory can one develop?

Let $\mathfrak{s} = \mathfrak{s}_0 \oplus \mathfrak{s}_1$ be a real Lie superalgebra. (The ground field does not matter much, but at least one formula will not work as written if the characteristic ...
José Figueroa-O'Farrill's user avatar
62 votes
11 answers
10k views

Why is the exterior algebra so ubiquitous?

The exterior algebra of a vector space V seems to appear all over the place, such as in the definition of the cross product and determinant, the description of the Grassmannian as a variety, the ...
Qiaochu Yuan's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
545 views

How many embeddings are there of super-Virasoro into n Fermions?

What is the space of N=1 super-Virasoro vertex superalgebras inside the c=n/2 free fermion vertex superalgebra? [Said differently, how many Neveu-Schwartz vectors are there in n fermions?] Answers ...
cdouglas's user avatar
  • 3,083

1
2