Construction of the de Sitter supergravity

Abstract

Recently, the complete action for an N=1 pure supergravity action in 4 dimensions that allows a positive, negative or zero cosmological constant has been constructed. The action is the generalization of a Volkov-Akulov action for the Goldstino coupled to supergravity. The construction uses a nilpotent multiplet. This paper is written in honour of Philippe Spindel. AVP enjoyed collaborations and many interactions with Philippe, who has always appreciated very precise derivations. We use this occasion to give a very detailed account of the calculations that lead to the published results. We review aspects of supersymmetry with de Sitter backgrounds, the treatment of auxiliary fields, and other ingredients in the construction.