Generalised superconformal higher-spin multiplets

Abstract

Abstract We propose generalised $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 1 superconformal higher-spin (SCHS) gauge multiplets of depth t, $$ {\Upsilon}_{\alpha (n)\overset{\cdot }{\alpha }(m)}^{(t)} $$ ϒ α n α ⋅ m t , with n ≥ m ≥ 1. At the component level, for t > 2 they contain generalised conformal higher-spin (CHS) gauge fields with depths t − 1, t and t + 1. The supermultiplets with t = 1 and t = 2 include both ordinary and generalised CHS gauge fields. Super-Weyl and gauge invariant actions describing the dynamics of $$ {\Upsilon}_{\alpha (n)\overset{\cdot }{\alpha }(m)}^{(t)} $$ ϒ α n α ⋅ m t on conformally-flat superspace backgrounds are then derived. For the case n = m = t = 1, corresponding to the maximal-depth conformal graviton supermultiplet, we extend this action to Bach-flat backgrounds. Models for superconformal non-gauge multiplets, which are expected to play an important role in the Bach-flat completions of the models for $$ {\Upsilon}_{\alpha (n)\overset{\cdot }{\alpha }(m)}^{(t)} $$ ϒ α n α ⋅ m t , are also provided. Finally we show that, on Bach-flat backgrounds, requiring gauge and Weyl invariance does not always determine a model for a CHS field uniquely.