Killing (super)algebras for generalised spin manifolds

Abstract

We define the notion of a Killing (super)algebra for a connection on a spinor bundle associated to a generalised spin structure on a pseudo-Riemannian manifold of any signature. We are led naturally to include in the even subspace not only Killing vectors but also certain infinitesimal gauge transformations, and we show that the definition of the (super)algebra requires, in addition to the spinor connection and a Dirac current, a map to pair spinor fields into infinitesimal gauge transformations. We show that these (super)algebras are filtered subdeformations of (an analogue of) the Poincaré superalgebra extended by the R-symmetry algebra. By employing Spencer cohomology, we study such deformations from a purely algebraic point of view and, at least in the case of Lorentzian signature and high supersymmetry, identify the subclass of deformations to which the Killing superalgebras belong. Finally, we show that, with some caveats, one can reconstruct a supersymmetric background geometry from such a deformation as a homogeneous space on which the deformation is realised as a subalgebra of the Killing superalgebra.