Unified Maxwell-Einstein and Yang-Mills-Einstein Supergravity Theories in Five Dimensions

Abstract

Unified N=2 Maxwell-Einstein supergravity theories (MESGTs) are supergravity theories in which all the vector fields, including the graviphoton, transform in an irreducible representation of a simple global symmetry group of the Lagrangian. As was established long time ago, in five dimensions there exist only four unified Maxwell-Einstein supergravity theories whose target manifolds are symmetric spaces. These theories are defined by the four simple Euclidean Jordan algebras of degree three. In this paper, we show that, in addition to these four unified MESGTs with symmetric target spaces, there exist three infinite families of unified MESGTs as well as another exceptional one. These novel unified MESGTs are defined by non-compact (Minkowskian) Jordan algebras, and their target spaces are in general neither symmetric nor homogeneous. The members of one of these three infinite families can be gauged in such a way as to obtain an infinite family of unified N=2 Yang-Mills-Einstein supergravity theories, in which all vector fields transform in the adjoint representation of a simple gauge group of the type SU(N,1). The corresponding gaugings in the other two infinite families lead to Yang-Mills-Einstein supergravity theories coupled to tensor multiplets.