Physics Letters B 763 (2016) 308–312
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Physics Letters B
www.elsevier.com/locate/physletb
Higher spin super-Cotton tensors and generalisations
of the linear–chiral duality in three dimensions
Sergei M. Kuzenko
School of Physics M013, The University of Western Australia 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received
27 September 2016
Received
in revised form 24 October 2016
Accepted
25 October 2016
Available
online 2 November 2016
Editor:
M. Cveti
ˇ
c
In three spacetime dimensions, (super)conformal geometry is controlled by the (super-)Cotton tensor.
We present a new duality transformation for N -extended supersymmetric theories formulated in terms
of the linearised super-Cotton tensor or its higher spin extensions for the cases N = 2, 1, 0. In the
N = 2case, this transformation is a generalisation of the linear–chiral duality, which provides a dual
description in terms of chiral superfields for general models of self-interacting N = 2vector multiplets in
three dimensions and N = 1tensor multiplets in four dimensions. For superspin-1 (gravitino multiplet),
superspin-3/2 (supergravity multiplet) and any higher superspin s ≥ 2, the duality transformation relates
a higher-derivative theory to one containing at most two derivatives at the component level. In the
N = 1case, we introduce gauge prepotentials for higher spin superconformal gravity and construct
the corresponding super-Cotton tensors, as well as the higher spin extensions of the linearised N = 1
conformal
supergravity action. Our N = 1duality transformation is a higher spin extension of the
known superfield duality relating the massless N = 1vector and scalar multiplets. Our N = 0duality
transformation is a higher spin extension of the vector-scalar duality.
© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Funded by SCOAP
3
.
1. Introduction
Recently there has been renewed interest in dualities in three-
dimensional
(3D) field theories [1–3]. In this paper we consider
3D duality transformations for theories involving higher spin ana-
logues
of the Cotton tensor or its supersymmetric generalisations –
the N = 1 and N = 2 super-Cotton tensors [4–6]. The specific fea-
ture
of 3D conformal gravity is that its geometry can be formulated
such that the Cotton tensor fully determines the algebra of covari-
ant
derivatives, see e.g. [6]. Similarly, in 3D N -extended conformal
supergravity formulated in conformal superspace [6], the corre-
sponding
superspace geometry is controlled by the super-Cotton
tensor. In the N = 2case, our higher spin duality transformation
may be thought of as a generalisation of the famous linear–chiral
duality.
The
linear–chiral duality [7,8] is of fundamental importance in
supersymmetric field theory, supergravity and string theory, in par-
ticular
in the context of supersymmetric nonlinear sigma models
[8–10]. It provides a dual description in terms of chiral superfields
for general models of self-interacting 3D N = 2vector multiplets
or 4D N = 1tensor multiplets [7]. The only assumption for the du-
E-mail address: sergei.kuzenko@uwa.edu.au.
ality to work is that the 3D N = 2vector multiplet or 4D N = 1
tensor
multiplet appears in the superfield Lagrangian, L(W ), only
via its field strength W , which is a real linear superfield,
¯
D
2
W = 0 , W =
¯
W =⇒ D
2
W = 0 . (1.1)
It is pertinent to recall the definition of the linear–chiral dual-
ity
in the 3D N = 2case we are interested in. We start from a
self-interacting vector multiplet model with action
S[W ]=
d
3
xd
2
θd
2
¯
θ
L(W ), (1.2)
and associate with it the following first-order model
S[W,,
¯
]=
d
3
xd
2
θd
2
¯
θ
L(W) − ( +
¯
)W
,
¯
D
α
= 0 . (1.3)
Here the dynamical variables are a real unconstrained super-
field
W, a chiral scalar and its complex conjugate
¯
. Varying
S[W, ,
¯
]
with respect to the Lagrange multiplier gives the
equation of motion
¯
D
2
W = 0, and hence W = W . Then the sec-
ond
term on the right of S[W, ,
¯
]
drops out, and we are back
to the vector multiplet model (1.2). On the other hand, we can
vary (1.3) with respect to W resulting in the equation of motion
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2016.10.071
0370-2693/
© 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Funded by
SCOAP
3
.