Equivariant Cartan-Eilenberg supergerbes, the Kostelecký-Rabin defect and descent to the Rabin-Crane superorbifold

Abstract

A concrete geometrisation scheme is proposed for the Green-Schwarz cocycles in the supersymmetric de Rham cohomology of the super-minkowskian spacetime, which determine standard super-$\sigma$-model dynamics of super-p-branes. The scheme yields higher-supergeometric structures with supersymmetry akin to those known from the un-graded setting - distinguished (Murray-type) p-gerbe objects in the category of Lie supergroups. These are shown to carry a canonical equivariant structure for the action of the discrete Kostelecký-Rabin subgroup of the target supersymmetry group on the target, and thus to resolve the `topology' of the corresponding Rabin-Crane soul superorbifold of the super-minkowskian spacetime. The equivariant structure is seen to effectively define a novel $\sigma$-model of super-p-brane dynamics in the super-orbifold through the construction of the corresponding (gauge-)symmetry defect.

arXiv comment42 pages, 2 figures