Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors

We generalise the notion of a Killing superalgebra, which arises in the physics literature on supergravity, to general dimension, signature, and choice of spinor module and Dirac current. We also allow for Lie algebras as well as superalgebras, capturing a set of examples previously defined using ge...

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Published in:Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
Date:2025
Main Author: Beckett, Andrew D.K.
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Інститут математики НАН України 2025
Online Access:https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/214204
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Journal Title:Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
Cite this:Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors. Andrew D.K. Beckett. SIGMA 21 (2025), 081, 61 pages

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Digital Library of Periodicals of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine
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author Beckett, Andrew D.K.
author_facet Beckett, Andrew D.K.
citation_txt Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors. Andrew D.K. Beckett. SIGMA 21 (2025), 081, 61 pages
collection DSpace DC
container_title Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
description We generalise the notion of a Killing superalgebra, which arises in the physics literature on supergravity, to general dimension, signature, and choice of spinor module and Dirac current. We also allow for Lie algebras as well as superalgebras, capturing a set of examples previously defined using geometric Killing spinors on higher-dimensional spheres. Our definition requires a connection on a spinor bundle - provided by supersymmetry transformations in the supergravity examples and by the Killing spinor equation on the spheres - and we obtain a set of sufficient conditions on such a connection for the Killing (super)algebra to exist. We show that these Lie (super)algebras are filtered deformations of graded subalgebras of (a generalisation of) the Poincaré superalgebra and then study such deformations abstractly using Spencer cohomology. In the highly supersymmetric Lorentzian case, we describe the filtered subdeformations which are of the appropriate form to arise as Killing superalgebras, lay out a classification scheme for their odd-generated subalgebras, and prove that, under certain technical conditions, there exist homogeneous Lorentzian spin manifolds on which these deformations are realised as Killing superalgebras. Our results generalise previous work in the 11-dimensional supergravity literature.
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last_indexed 2026-03-14T20:11:23Z
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spelling Beckett, Andrew D.K.
2026-02-20T08:04:43Z
2025
Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors. Andrew D.K. Beckett. SIGMA 21 (2025), 081, 61 pages
1815-0659
2020 Mathematics Subject Classification: 17B66; 83E50; 17B56
arXiv:2409.11306
https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/214204
https://doi.org/10.3842/SIGMA.2025.081
We generalise the notion of a Killing superalgebra, which arises in the physics literature on supergravity, to general dimension, signature, and choice of spinor module and Dirac current. We also allow for Lie algebras as well as superalgebras, capturing a set of examples previously defined using geometric Killing spinors on higher-dimensional spheres. Our definition requires a connection on a spinor bundle - provided by supersymmetry transformations in the supergravity examples and by the Killing spinor equation on the spheres - and we obtain a set of sufficient conditions on such a connection for the Killing (super)algebra to exist. We show that these Lie (super)algebras are filtered deformations of graded subalgebras of (a generalisation of) the Poincaré superalgebra and then study such deformations abstractly using Spencer cohomology. In the highly supersymmetric Lorentzian case, we describe the filtered subdeformations which are of the appropriate form to arise as Killing superalgebras, lay out a classification scheme for their odd-generated subalgebras, and prove that, under certain technical conditions, there exist homogeneous Lorentzian spin manifolds on which these deformations are realised as Killing superalgebras. Our results generalise previous work in the 11-dimensional supergravity literature.
The author would like to thank José Figueroa-O’Farrill, under whose supervision this work was done, for his guidance and patience. Thanks also to Andrea Santi, James Lucietti, C.S. Shahbazi, and the sorely missed Paul de Medeiros for many enlightening conversations and helpful comments. Finally, thanks to the anonymous referees, whose comments and suggestions greatly improved the quality and clarity of this work. This work was carried out with scholarship funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and the School of Mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. This work previously appeared as part of the author’s Ph.D. Thesis [8] but has not been published elsewhere. Some changes in notation and terminology have been made for this version to aid comparison with other work, and there are also some minor changes in exposition and corrections; in particular, Lemma 3.3 and its proof have been updated.
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Інститут математики НАН України
Symmetry, Integrability and Geometry: Methods and Applications
Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors
Article
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spellingShingle Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors
Beckett, Andrew D.K.
title Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors
title_full Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors
title_fullStr Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors
title_full_unstemmed Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors
title_short Killing (Super)Algebras Associated to Connections on Spinors
title_sort killing (super)algebras associated to connections on spinors
url https://nasplib.isofts.kiev.ua/handle/123456789/214204
work_keys_str_mv AT beckettandrewdk killingsuperalgebrasassociatedtoconnectionsonspinors