Spinorial charges and their role in the fusion of internal and space-time symmetries

The advent of supersymmetry immediately led to speculations that a non-trivial mixing of internal and space-time symmetries could be achieved within its framework. In fact, the well-known no-go theorems do not apply to the supersymmetry algebra due to the presence, in the latter, of (anticommuting) spinorial charges. However, not until the recent work of Haag, Lopuszanski and Sohnius did a clearcut picture emerge as to how the aforementioned nontrivial mixing can take place. Most notably, the presence of the conformal algebra within the supersymmetry algebra turns out to be vital. The findings of Haag et al. are solidified through an explicit construction which uses as underlying space the pseudo-Euclidean space E(4, 2), i.e. the space for which the conformal group is the group of rotations, and which employs as main tools the spinors associated with the space E(4, 2). The algebro-geometric approach of Cartan is followed in order to understand both the introduction and the properties of these spinors. In this manner, many insights are gained regarding the mathematical foundations of supersymmetry. Thus, the emergence of the anticommutator, rather than the commutator, among spinor charges is fully understood as a natural algebraic consequence and not as an a priori given fact. In addition, it is clearly seen how an (internal) unitary symmetry group can make its appearance within the supersymmetry scheme and verify, via this explicit construction, the results of Haag et al. (Auth.)