The Vector-Tensor Supermultiplet with Gauged Central Charge

Abstract

The vector-tensor multiplet is coupled off-shell to an N=2 vector multiplet such that its central charge transformations are realized locally. A gauged central charge is a necessary prerequisite for a coupling to supergravity and the strategy underlying our construction uses the potential for such a coupling as a guiding principle. The results for the action and transformation rules take a nonlinear form and necessarily include a Chern-Simons term. After a duality transformation the action is encoded in a homogeneous holomorphic function consistent with special geometry.