A Supergravity Primer

This book is devoted to a pedagogical introduction to supergravity from a practical perspective. As a particular feature of the book, the authors provide explicit details, which makes the computations easier to follow for the interested reader. Each chapter has summary tables, which contain the main results and, in addition, we have collected important or additional material in the appendix.

In the first part of the book, the N=1 supergravity Lagrangian in four spacetime dimensions is derived. Closely following the reference of Wess and Bagger, we use the superspace approach. All steps, from the geometric principles of curved superspace to the field redefinition necessary to obtain a correctly normalised Lagrangian, are carefully analysed. Comparisons with other methods, such as conformal supergravity, are also given.

In the second part of the book, we address more phenomenological aspects of supergravity such as supersymmetry breaking, no-scale supergravity, super-Higgs mechanism, etc. Finally, the relationship between supergravity and particle physics, and cosmology are analysed.
Contents: PrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of TablesIntroduction and Outlook of the BookA Brief Summary of N = 1 SupersymmetryCurved Superspace — Geometrical PrinciplesSuperfields in Curved SuperspaceGeneral Principles to Construct Invariant ActionsExplicit Computation of the Supergravity ActionSupergravity BreakingSupergravity in Particles Physics and CosmologyAppendices:ConventionsSome Properties of the Lorentz GroupUseful IdentitiesSupermultiplets: Conventions and Main ResultsHow to Construct an Action in SupergravityKähler ManifoldsTwo-Loop Renormalisation Group EquationsLie Superalgebras Associated to Supergravity and SupersymmetryBibliographyIndex
Readership: Graduate students and researchers interested in modern field theory and studies beyond Standard Model of elementary particles.Curved Superspace;Bianchi Identity;Superfields;Supergravity Action;FieldRedefinition;Gravity Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking;No-scale Supergravity;KählerManifolds;Superconformal Algebra;Softly Broken Supersymmetry;Application in Particles0Key Features:All technical details necessary to obtain N=1, D=4 supergravity are given in such a way that the interested reader can reproduce all the computations.Some applications of supergravity are studied, for instance in relation with supergravity breaking, particles physics, etc. (which is not included in Wess & Bagger for instance)Eight appendices are given in order to illuminate the main text and many tables, summarizing important results, are collected throughout the book for an easy reading