TASI 2012: Super-Tricks for Superspace

Abstract

These lectures from the TASI 2012 summer school outline the basics of supersymmetry (SUSY) in 3+1 dimensions. Starting from a ground-up development of superspace, we develop all of the tools necessary to construct SUSY lagrangians. While aimed at an introductory level, these lectures incorporate a number of "super-tricks" for SUSY aficionados, including SUSY-covariant derivatives, equations of motion in superspace, background field methods, and non-linear realizations of goldstinos.