E$_{7(7)}$ Exceptional Field Theory in Superspace

Abstract

We formulate the locally supersymmetric E$_{7(7)}$ exceptional field theory in a $(4+56|32)$ dimensional superspace, corresponding to a 4D $N\!=\!8$ "external" superspace augmented with an "internal" 56-dimensional space. This entails the unification of external diffeomorphisms and local supersymmetry transformations into superdiffeomorphisms. The solutions to the superspace Bianchi identities lead to on-shell duality equations for the $p$-form field strengths for $p\leq 4$. The reduction to component fields provides a complete description of the on-shell supersymmetric theory. As an application of our results, we perform a generalized Scherk-Schwarz reduction and obtain the superspace formulation of maximal gauged supergravity in four dimensions parametrized by an embedding tensor.