Introduction to supersymmetric field theories

Spring 2012, course ID NWI-NM087B

Lecturer: Jari Laamanen (j.laamanen[ät]science.ru.nl)

Lectures

algebra
weekdaytimeroom
16Tue15:30HG03.085
17Mon13:30HG03.054
18holiday
19Mon13:30HG03.054
20Mon13:30HG03.054
21Mon13:30HG03.054
22Wed13:30HG03.836
23Mon13:30HG03.054
24Mon13:30HG03.054

Lecture notes

The lecture notes will be posted here after the corresponding lectures. Please note that the page and section numbering might change as the course advances, as well some typos might be get fixed.

Full text in one document: Lecture notes 2012 (pdf)

Divided by sections
Front matter: Table of contents (pdf)

  1. lecture (pdf)
  2. lecture (pdf)
  3. lecture (pdf)
  4. lecture (pdf)
  5. lecture (pdf)
  6. lecture (pdf)
  7. lecture (pdf)
  8. lecture (pdf)

End matter: Appendices (pdf), Bibliography and references (pdf)

Exercises

Every 2nd week

  1. exercise (pdf) due 04/5/12, solutions (pdf)
  2. exercise (pdf) due 21/5/12, solutions (pdf)
  3. exercise (pdf) due 04/6/12, solutions (pdf)
  4. exercise (pdf) due 18/6/12, solutions (pdf)

Exam

The exam will be on Thu July 5th at 14:00 (in the usual class room HG03.054).

  1. The exam is a written exam
  2. The examined material consists of the lecture notes 1-8, the appendices A.1-A.6, and the exercises 1-4. All have been/will be posted to the course website.
  3. Excluded from the exam material:
    5.1.2 Flavor-changing neutral currents
    5.1.3 Anomaly mediated SUSY breaking
    These you do not need to study. Also, no need to learn/copy the formulae from Sec. 3.2 (N=1 Supergravity), but read the material.
  4. Duration is from 14:00 to 17:00 (3 hours; if you have been granted an extension to the standard duration, contact me before the exam).
  5. You can bring with you one page of written formulae to the exam.
    One page means one side of an A4 sheet.
  6. Return the formula paper with the exam to me, so I know your conventions.
  7. No pocket calculators.

Try to use the latest lecture notes, as some of the typos have been corrected along the way. You'll get the note page back later for your adventures in SUSY. Exercises should be understood at the model solutions level (I mean specifically ex. 2.2).

Bibliography

Here some textbooks and lecture notes are listed. I find [BL94] and [Mar97] particularly useful. The book [DRG04] contains a thorough account of SUSY.

[Ait05] Ian J.R. Aitchison. Supersymmetry and the MSSM: An Elementary introduction. 2005. Notes of Lectures for Graduate Students in Particle Physics, Oxford, 2004 and 2005. arXiv:hep-ph/0505105.
[Bin06] P. Binetruy. Supersymmetry: theory, experiment, and cosmology. Oxford graduate texts in mathematics. Oxford University Press, 2006.
[BL94] D. Bailin and A. Love. Supersymmetric gauge field theory and string theory. Graduate student series in physics. Institute of Physics Pub., 1994.
[Din09] Michael Dine. Supersymmetry Breaking at Low Energies. Nucl.Phys.Proc.Suppl., 192-193:40–60, 2009. arXiv:0901.1713, doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysbps.2009.07.044.
[Dre96] Manuel Drees. An Introduction to supersymmetry. 1996. arXiv:hep-ph/9611409.
[DRG04] M. Drees, P. Roy, and R. Godbole. Theory and phenomenology of sparticles: an account of four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetry in high energy physics. World Scientific, 2004.
[Hoo09] Dan Hooper. TASI 2008 Lectures on Dark Matter. pages 709–764, 2009. arXiv:0901.4090.
[Mar97] Stephen P. Martin. A Supersymmetry primer. 1997. arXiv:hep-ph/9709356.
[Nev12] R. Nevzorov. Phenomenological aspects of Supersymmetry: SUSY models and electroweak symmetry breaking. 2012. arXiv:1201.0115.
[Oli99] Keith A. Olive. Introduction to supersymmetry: Astrophysical and phenomenological constraints. pages 221–293, 1999. arXiv:hep-ph/9911307.
[Pes08] Michael E. Peskin. Supersymmetry in Elementary Particle Physics. pages 609–704, 2008. arXiv:0801.1928.
[QKS10] Fernando Quevedo, Sven Krippendorf, and Oliver Schlotterer. Cambridge Lectures on Supersymmetry and Extra Dimensions. 2010. arXiv:1011.1491.
[Sig09] Adrian Signer. ABC of SUSY. J.Phys.G, G36:073002, 2009. arXiv:0905.4630,
[Wei00] S. Weinberg. The Quantum Theory of Fields: Supersymmetry. Number 3 in The Quantum Theory of Fields. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
[Wes90] Peter C. West. Introduction to supersymmetry and supergravity. Singapore: World Scientific, 289 p, extended second edition, 1990.