Fayet-Iliopoulos Terms in 5D Orbifold Supergravity

Abstract

We discuss a locally supersymmetric formulation for the boundary Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms in 5-dimensional U(1) gauge theory on $S^1/Z_2$, using the four-form multiplier mechanism to introduce the necessary $Z_2$-odd FI coefficient. The physical consequence of the boundary FI terms is studied within the full supergravity framework. For both models giving a flat and a warped spacetime geometry, the only meaningful deformation of vacuum configuration induced by the FI terms is a kink-type vacuum expectation value of the vector multiplet scalar field which generate a 5D kink mass for charged hypermultiplet. This result for the four-form induced boundary FI terms is consistent with the one derived by the superfield formulation of 5D conformal supergravity.