Ola Hosseiky Malaeb - American University of Beirut

American University of Beirut
Physics Department
Invites you to the PhD Thesis Defense entitled
Supersymmetric Massive Gravity and
Dark Matter
By
Ola Hosseiky Malaeb
Higgs massive gravity was formulated by using four scalar fields with global Lorentz symmetry.
Once these scalar fields take a vacuum expectation value, diffeomorphism invariance is broken
spontaneously and then the graviton acquires mass. The question is what we will get by
supersymmetrizing this model. We formulate the supersymmetric case by using instead four
chiral superfields with global Lorentz symmetry. Similar to the bosonic case, diffeomorphism
invariance and local supersymmetry are broken spontaneously once the scalar components of the
chiral multiplets acquire a vacuum expectation value. We will end up with a massive spin-2
field, two massive spin-3/2 fields and a massive vector in the broken phase. This is similar to
what we have for N = 2 Supergravity, but the two gravitinos obtained have different masses. This
composes the first part of the work.
For the second part, we construct the Hamiltonian of Mimetic Gravity. We analyze the equations
of motion and check that we end up with the same number of equations as in general relativity.
Also, Poisson brackets are computed to prove closure.
Date: Thursday, November 27, 2014
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Place: Auditorium B102, Issam Fares Institute