Kelly Stelle

Imperial College London (London, UK)

Supergravity infinities versus counterterms

Abstract:
The control over nonabelian gauge invariances at the quantum level plays a critical role in the study of the ultraviolet divergences both in gauge theories and in theories of gravity. Recent dramatic cancellations of potentially divergent contributions to maximal supergravity require a careful revisit of the applicable nonrenormalization theorems, based on local gauge invariances and on duality symmetries. These imply cancellation of divergences through the 6-loop order, with an intriguing condition applying at 7 loops owing to the vanishing volume of the full superspace.