Superconformal Structures and the Superparticle on the Complex Projective Line

Abstract

In this paper the notion of a superconformal structure on a supermanifold is introduced in an effort to study the superparticle sigma-model. There are, in particular, two main aspects of the sigma-model which are investigated. The first is on the relationship between the superparticle Lagrangian and the component Lagrangian; and the second is on the problem of integrating infinitesimal variations to globally-defined variations of the component Lagrangian, which leads naturally to a notion of consistency. Throughout this paper illustrations are provided on the complex projective line.