Kaluza-Klein supergravity on AdS_3 x S^3

Abstract

We construct a Chern-Simons type gauged N=8 supergravity in three spacetime dimensions with gauge group SO(4) x T_\infty over the infinite dimensional coset space SO(8,\infty)/(SO(8) x SO(\infty)), where T_\infty is an infinite dimensional translation subgroup of SO(8,\infty). This theory describes the effective interactions of the (infinitely many) supermultiplets contained in the two spin-1 Kaluza-Klein towers arising in the compactification of N=(2,0) supergravity in six dimensions on AdS_3 x S^3 with the massless supergravity multiplet. After the elimination of the gauge fields associated with T_\infty, one is left with a Yang Mills type gauged supergravity with gauge group SO(4), and in the vacuum the symmetry is broken to the (super-)isometry group of AdS_3 x S^3, with infinitely many fields acquiring masses by a variant of the Brout-Englert-Higgs effect.