Effective actions in supersymmetric gauge theories: heat kernels for non-minimal operators

Abstract: We study the quantum dynamics of a system of

n

Abelian

c a l N = 1

vector multiplets coupled to

f r a c 12 n (n + 1)

chiral multiplets which parametrise the Hermitian symmetric space

m a t h s f S p (2 n, m a t h b b R) / m a t h s f U (n)

. In the presence of supergravity, this model is super-Weyl invariant and possesses the maximal non-compact duality group

m a t h s f S p (2 n, m a t h b b R)

at the classical level. These symmetries should be respected by the logarithmically divergent term (the ``induced action) of the effective action obtained by integrating out the vector multiplets. In computing the effective action, one has to deal with non-minimal operators for which the known heat kernel techniques are not directly applicable, even in flat (super)space. In this paper we develop a method to compute the induced action in Minkowski superspace. The induced action is derived in closed form and has a simple structure. It is a higher-derivative superconformal sigma model on $m a t h s f S p (2 n, m a t h b b R) / m a t h s f U (n)$ . The obtained $c a l N = 1$ results are generalised to the case of $c a l N = 2$ local supersymmetry: a system of $n$ Abelian $c a l N = 2$ vector multiplets coupled to $c a l N = 2$ chiral multiplets $X^{I}$ parametrising $m a t h s f S p (2 n, m a t h b b R) / m a t h s f U (n)$ . The induced action is shown to be proportional to , where is the K"ahler potential for $m a t h s f S p (2 n, m a t h b b R) / m a t h s f U (n)$ . We also apply our method to compute DeWitt's $a_{2}$ coefficients in some non-supersymmetric theories with non-minimal operators.

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