The Many Faces Of The Superworld: Yuri Golfand Memorial Vol

by Misha Shifman

Overview

This invaluable volume is dedicated to the memory of Yuri Golfand, one of the discoverers of supersymmetry. Together with his student, he constructed in 1970 the superextension of the Poincaré algebra and obtained the first four-dimensional supersymmetric field theory, a version of supersymmetric QED. Golfand died in 1994 in Israel.Did the pioneers of supersymmetry — Neveu, Schwarz, Ramond, Golfand, Volkov, Wess, Zumino and others — foresee in the early 1970's that they would be opening to us the gates of the superworld? The superworld will become one of the most important components of our understanding of Nature — a component that will stay with us forever.This book is a compilation of the original papers and review articles, devoted to various aspects of supersymmetry, written by the outstanding researchers in the field, theorists whose work shaped the present day theory and continues to make a profound impact on the frontier directions of the current development. A wide range of topics is covered — from subtle results in the superstring theory to supersymmetry-based phenomenology. Most of the articles have been prepared specifically for this volume.The first part of the book consists of the Editor's essay presenting the basic stages of Golfand's life and work, the memoirs of his widow, Mrs N Koretz-Golfand and of his student, Dr E Likhtman. Also included is the article of Prof. M Marinov “Revealing the Path to the Superworld”, outlining the main ideas that paved the way to the discovery of supersymmetry. The historical part of the book concludes with the English translation of the Golfand-Likhtman paper on supersymmetry published in 1972 in the Tamm Memorial Volume.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9789810242060
Publisher:	World Scientific Publishing Company, Incorporated
Publication date:	07/19/2000
Pages:	688
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.60(d)

Table of Contents

	Introduction	1
1.	Part I--The Past
1.1	My Husband, My Love	15
1.2	Notes of an Old Graduate Student	25
1.3	Revealing the Path to the Superworld	32
1.4	Comment on Chronology and Numerology of Research on Supersymmetry	41
1.5	On Extensions of the Algebra of Generators of the Poincare Group by Bispinor Generators	45
1.6	On N = 1 Symmetry Algebra and Simple Models	54
	List of publications of Yu. A. Golfand	80
2.	Part II--The Present
2.1	From Symmetry to Supersymmetry	85
2.2	Duality Invariant Born-Infeld Theory	103
2.3	Backlund Transformations in 10D SUSY Yang-Mills Theories	111
2.4	Representations of Extended Supersymmetries in Two Dimensions	126
2.5	Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics from Light Cone Quantization	142
2.6	Supersymmetric Index of Three-Dimensional Gauge Theory	156
2.7	Vacuum Structure in Supersymmetric Yang-Mills Theories with any Gauge Group	185
2.8	The Superworld	235
2.9	Brane Dynamics and Gauge Theory	248
2.10	Confining Phase of Three Dimensional Supersymmetric Quantum Electrodynamics	262
2.11	Z-D Brane Box Models and Non-Chiral Dihedral Quivers	280
2.12	Threebranes and Conformal Gauge Theories	307
2.13	Extremal Correlators in the AdS/CFT Correspondence	332
2.14	Two Outcomes for Two Old (Super-)Problems	361
2.15	Anomalies in Supersymmetric Theories	370
2.16	Some Properties of Type I' String Theory	388
2.17	Dirac Equations, Light Cone Supersymmetry, and Superconformal Algebras	398
2.18	Born-Infeld Action, Supersymmetry, and String Theory	417
2.19	The Freckled Instantons	453
2.20	About R-Parity and the Supersymmetric Standard Model	476
2.21	M-Theory and Hypercharge	498
2.22	Constraints on Extra Time Dimensions	525
2.23	Higher Spin Gauge Theories: Star-Product and AdS Space	533
2.24	Some Thermodynamical Aspects of String Theory	611
2.25	Logarithmic Unification from Symmetries Enhanced in the Sub-Millimeter Infrared	627
2.26	A Toy Model for Supergravity and Superspace	649
	Epilogue	677

Editorial Reviews

Little recognized during his life and little remembered after, Ukrainian-born physicist Golfand (1922-94) was one of the discoverers of supersymmetry, and in 1970 oversaw the construction of the superextension of the Poincar<'e> algebra and obtained the first four- dimensional supersymmetric field theory, a version of supersymmetric QED. After a tribute by his wife, five of the original papers and review articles from that period are presented. Then scientists offer 26 technical papers on the superworld, one of the most important components of scientific understanding of Nature, as it stands today after three decades evolution of his work. No index is provided. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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