Solitons in supersymmetric sigma-models with torsion Original Research Article

We derive a bound on the energy of the general (p, q)-supersymmeric two-dimensional massive sigma-model with torsion, in terms of the topological and Noether charges that appear as central charges in its supersymmetry algebra. The bound is saturated by soliton solutions of first-order Bogomolʹnyi-type equations. This generalizes results obtained previously for p = q models without torsion. We give examples of massive (1, 1) models with torsion that have a group manifold as a target space. We show that they generically have multiple vacua and find an explicit soliton solution of an SU(2) model. We also construct a new class of zero-torsion massive (4, 4) models with multiple vacua and soliton solutions. In addition, we compute the metrics on the one-soliton moduli spaces for those cases for which soliton solutions are known explicitly, and discuss their interpretation.