Physics 487    Supersymmetry and Supergravity

Instructor:  Savdeep Sethi

Textbooks:  Supersymmetry and Supergravity  by Wess & Bagger

                       The Quantum Theory of Fields, vol. 3  by Steve Weinberg

Location & Time: KPTC 305, TTh 1:30-2:50

This course will serve as an introduction to supersymmetry and supergravity.  It will be aimed at advanced graduate
students with some field theory background. By popular demand, the course has been scheduled for the Spring rather
than Winter quarter.


Tentative Syllabus:

References:

SUSY QM and Index Theory:

On supersymmetric index theory, I recommend the original papers 

E. Witten, Nucl. Phys. B188:513, 1981 and Nucl. Phys. B202:253, 1982.

For an explanation (at a level more detailed than the presentation in lecture) about how to compute supersymmetric indices using heat kernels, I suggest

S. Sethi and M. Stern, hep-th/9705046, Commun. Math. Phys. 194:675-705, 1998.

For physical derivations of geometric index formulae using supersymmetric quantum mechanics, see, for example,

Luis Alvarez-Gaume, Commun. Math. Phys. 90:161, 1983.


Holomorphy and Gauge Theory Superpotentials:

See  hep-th/9509066 by K. Intriligator and N. Seiberg.


Problem Sets:

Assignment 1
Note: I have added additional comments to the problem set.

Assignment 2


Final Project:

For your final, choose a topic related to supersymmetry. I will list some possibilities below.  Come and see me when you have found a topic to discuss the scope of your project, and to make sure that it has not already be taken.

Write a report on the topic (preferably using TeX or LaTeX) which is at a level accessible to your classmates (there is a good chance, your classmates will be reading your report). On this part of final, you should work alone.

In small groups (2 or 3 people at most), prepare a 1 hour presentation on the topic.

Final Presentation Schedule:

Gravity mediated  supersymmetry breaking:  Tuesday, June 3 (M. Park & D. Morrissey; 3:15, location theory lounge)
M. Park's report; D. Morrissey's report.

Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM):  Monday, June 9 (N. Shah & N. Busca; 11:15)
N. Busca's report; N. Shah's report

Gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking:  Monday, June 9 (A. Menon & M. Tchernookov; 1:30)
A. Menon's report; M. Tchernookov's report

N=2 Supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories:  Tuesday, June 10 (A. Zhyglo; 11:15)
A. Zyglo's report

The Supersymmetric Index:  Tuesday, June 10 (M. Guica & K. Smith; 1:30)
K. Smith's report; M. Guica's report

 A survey of supergravities in different dimensions: Wednesday, June 11 (M. Seifert, P. Warszawski & E. Antonyan; 1:30)
M. Seifert's report; P. Warszawski's report; E. Antonyan's report

Reports are available here for download.