BRST gauge fixing and the algebra of global supersymmetry Original Research Article

Global supersymmetry (SUSY) in supersymmetric gauge theory is generally broken by gauge fixing. A prescription to extract physical information from such SUSY algebra broken by gauge fixing is analyzed in the path integral framework. If δSUSYδBRSTΨ = δBRSTδSUSYΨ for a gauge fixing “fermion” Ψ the SUSY charge density is written as a sum of the piece which is naively expected without gauge fixing and a BRST exact piece. If δSUSYδSUSYδBRST = δBRSTδSUSYδSUSYΨ, the equal-time anti-commutator of SUSY charge is written as a sum of a physical piece and a BRST exact piece. We illustrate these properties for N = 1 and N = 2 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories and for a D = 10 massive superparticle (or “D-particle”) where the κ-symmetry provides extra complications.