Harmonic Superspace [Paperback]

The inventors of harmonic superspace present a clear account of the theory and its applications.Inspired by exciting developments in superstring theory, this book provides the first pedagogical and comprehensive introduction to the harmonic superspace method in extended supersymmetry. The authors (credited with inventing the technique) are recognised as world experts on the subject and present a clear account of its formalism and applications. The book will be of great interest to researchers and graduate students working in the areas of supersymmetric quantum field theory, string theory and complex geometries.Inspired by exciting developments in superstring theory, this book provides the first pedagogical and comprehensive introduction to the harmonic superspace method in extended supersymmetry. The authors (credited with inventing the technique) are recognised as world experts on the subject and present a clear account of its formalism and applications. The book will be of great interest to researchers and graduate students working in the areas of supersymmetric quantum field theory, string theory and complex geometries.Here is the first pedagogical introduction to harmonic superspace in extended supersymmetry by the scientists who developed the method. Inspired by developments in superstring theory, it provides a systematic treatment of the quantum field theories with N=2 and N=3 supersymmetry in Harmonic Superspace. The authors present the harmonic superspace approach as a means of providing an off-shell description of the N=2 supersymmetric theories, both at the classical and quantum levels. Furthermore, they show how it offers a unique way to construct an off-shell formulation of a theory with higher supersymmetry, namely, the N=3 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. Harmonic Superspace makes manifest many remarkable geometric properties of the N=2 theories, for example, the one-to-one correspondence between N=2 supersymmetric matter, and hyper-Kähler anl¢