Finiteness of Ricci flat supersymmetric non-linear sigma-models

Combining the constraints of Kaehler differential geometry with the universality of the normal coordinate expansion in the background field method, we study the ultraviolet behavior of 2-dimensional supersymmetric non-linear sigma-models with target space an arbitrary riemannian manifold M. We show that the constraint of N=2 supersymmetry requires that all counterterms to the metric beyond one-loop order are cohomologically trivial. It follows that such supersymmetric non-linear sigma-models defined on locally symmetric spaces are super-renormalizable and that N=4 models are on-shell ultraviolet finite to all orders of perturbation theory. (orig.)