New Goldstone multiplet for partially broken supersymmetry

TL;DR

This work identifies a new Goldstone multiplet—the Goldstone-Maxwell multiplet—for partially broken $N=2$ supersymmetry, showing that its nonlinear $N=2$ realization leads to a Born–Infeld-type gauge action that is self-dual under a superfield duality. The authors derive covariant irreducibility constraints that reduce the Goldstone sector to the $N=1$ Maxwell multiplet and construct the exact nonlinear transformations and invariant GM action, connecting the Goldstone sector to a $D$-brane interpretation for $p=3$. They further demonstrate how $N=1$ matter and gauge fields can be consistently coupled in this background, preserving $N=1$ chirality and enabling chiral and full superspace invariants, with Kahler and superpotential generalizations. The results extend the landscape of partially broken SUSY by providing a concrete, ghost-free GM multiplet that interweaves Goldstone and gauge dynamics with geometric interpretations and D-brane-inspired dualities.

Abstract

The partial spontaneous breaking of rigid N=2 supersymmetry implies the existence of a massless N=1 Goldstone multiplet. In this paper we show that the spin-(1/2,1) Maxwell multiplet can play this role. We construct its full nonlinear transformation law and find the invariant Goldstone action. The spin-1 piece of the action turns out to be of Born-Infeld type, and the full superfield action is duality invariant. This leads us to conclude that the Goldstone multiplet can be associated with a D-brane solution of superstring theory for p=3. In addition, we find that N=1 chirality is preserved in the presence of the Goldstone-Maxwell multiplet. This allows us to couple it to N=1 chiral and gauge field multiplets. We find that arbitrary Kahler and superpotentials are consistent with partially broken N=2 supersymmetry.