Superconformal anomalies from superconformal Chern-Simons polynomials

Abstract

Abstract We consider the 4-dimensional N $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 1 Lie superconformal algebra and search for completely “symmetric” (in the graded sense) 3-index invariant tensors. The solution we find is unique and we show that the corresponding invariant polynomial cubic in the generalized curvatures of superconformal gravity vanishes. Consequently, the associated Chern-Simons polynomial is a non-trivial anomaly cocycle. We explicitly compute this cocycle to all orders in the independent fields of superconformal gravity and establish that it is BRST equivalent to the so-called superconformal a-anomaly. We briefly discuss the possibility that the superconformal c-anomaly also admits a similar Chern-Simons formulation and the potential holographic, 5-dimensional, interpretation of our results.

Keywords

• Anomalies in Field and String Theories
• BRST Quantization
• Scale and Conformal Symmetries
• Supergravity Models