Yang-Mills and Supersymmetry Covariance Must Coexist

Abstract

Supersymmetry and Yang-Mills type gauge invariance are two of the essential properties of most, and possibly the most important models in fundamental physics. Supersymmetry is nearly trivial to prove in the (traditionally gauge-noncovariant) superfield formalism, whereas the gauge-covariant formalism makes gauge invariance manifest. In 3+1-dimensions, the transformation from one into the other is elementary and essentially unique. By contrast, this transformation turns out to be impossible in the most general 1+1-dimensional case. In fact, only the (manifestly) gauge- and supersymmetry-covariant formalism guarantees both universal gauge-invariance and supersymmetry.