- Letter
- Open Access
Local supersymmetry and the square roots of Bondi-Metzner-Sachs supertranslations
Phys. Rev. D 104, L121702 – Published 10 December, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.L121702
Abstract
algebras—also called superalgebras—are graded extensions of the algebra. They can be of two different types; they can contain either a finite number or an infinite number of fermionic generators. We show in this letter that, with suitable boundary conditions on the graviton and gravitino fields at spatial infinity, supergravity on asymptotically flat spaces possesses as superalgebra of asymptotic symmetries a (nonlinear) algebra containing an infinite number of fermionic generators, which we denote . These boundary conditions are not only invariant under but also lead to a fully consistent canonical description of the supersymmetries, which have, in particular, well-defined Hamiltonian generators that close according to the nonlinear algebra. One finds, in particular, that the graded brackets between the fermionic generators yield all the supertranslations, of which they provide therefore “square roots”.
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