Bibliography and guided reading

Choose a paper by the calculation you are ready to do. Reading a source is more productive when you can reproduce one step, identify its assumptions, and compare its conventions with a result you already understand. The five entrances below follow the corresponding lessons; they do not require completing the other subjects first.

Five first reading assignments

Subject and source	First passage	A result to reproduce
Curved three-dimensional theories: Cyril Closset, Thomas T. Dumitrescu, Guido Festuccia and Zohar Komargodski, Supersymmetric Field Theories on Three-Manifolds, 1212.3388v3	Introduction, (1.4)–(1.5), then the paper entrance	Identify every background field in the two spinor equations and specialize to the round sphere.
Four-dimensional N=1 dynamics: Kenneth Intriligator and Nathan Seiberg, Lectures on Supersymmetric Gauge Theories and Electric-Magnetic Duality, hep-th/9509066v1	Section 2.3, then section 4.1, (4.3)–(4.6)	Recover the one-flavor SU(2) superpotential from the general expression, and separate symmetry constraints from the nonzero instanton input in the dynamical-superpotential lesson.
Four-dimensional N=2 dynamics: Yuji Tachikawa, N=2 supersymmetric dynamics for pedestrians, 1312.2684v3	Section 2.4, (2.4.2)–(2.4.9)	Compare the two fermion kinetic terms and recover the local prepotential structure. Use the low-energy-action lesson to translate the overall and charge normalizations.
Four-dimensional N=4 Yang–Mills: Joseph A. Minahan, Review of AdS/CFT Integrability, Chapter I.1: Spin Chains in N=4 Super Yang-Mills, 1012.3983v3	Section 2 opening, then (3.5)–(3.7)	Count the on-shell fields in the theory’s definition and distinguish its sixteen Poincaré charges from the extra conformal charges. The spin-chain approximation comes later.
Three-dimensional ABJM: Ofer Aharony, Oren Bergman, Daniel Louis Jafferis and Juan Maldacena, N=6 superconformal Chern-Simons-matter theories, M2-branes and their gravity duals, 0806.1218v4	Section 2.2, (2.4)–(2.6), with the original-paper guide	Eliminate the two algebraic adjoint chiral variables to obtain the quartic superpotential. Retain the matrix order and the ordinary trace.

The lecture notes in this table supply a guided explanation; the original construction papers supply their specific arguments. Neither role makes every statement in a source an exact theorem. In particular, the N=1 reading uses an instanton calculation to establish a coefficient that symmetry alone cannot fix. The ABJM reading concerns the action; a large-rank gravity approximation is a later, separate question.

Worked choice: start from the round sphere

Suppose you have completed the original round-sphere route and want to read its central paper. Begin with the versioned introduction, not the final determinant formula. The flat parent is three-dimensional N=2 with four real Poincaré supercharges. Continue its spinors independently to Euclidean signature, and take the round metric of radius $\ell>0$ with

A_\mu=V_\mu=0,\qquad H=-\frac{i}{\ell}.

In the source’s (1.4), the terms proportional to $A$ and $V$ vanish. The remaining coefficient is $-H/2=i/(2\ell)$ , so the first reading calculation gives

\nabla_\mu\zeta=\frac{i}{2\ell}\gamma_\mu\zeta.

Both sides have one inverse length multiplying a spinor. Equation (1.5) gives the same coefficient for the independent tilded spinor in this particular background. This substitution identifies the equation; the global frame calculation establishes its global solutions and the preserved symmetry. It does not follow merely from counting the two displayed equations. The Killing-spinor laboratory lets you check the frame dependence explicitly.

You now have a concrete route into the paper: locate the source equation, translate its fields, reproduce this specialization, and then follow the corresponding section guide. The equation index connects later paper landmarks to their teaching calculations.

Keep versions and conventions together

A source’s bibliographic record and a particular equation are different references. An unversioned arXiv record may open a newer revision; use the explicit version in the assigned passage when comparing equation numbers. Printed page numbers can differ from the PDF viewer’s count. The paper guides state both where that distinction matters.

Before comparing two formulas, record the observable, dimension, gauge group, trace or charge normalization, and approximation. A change from $SU(N)$ to $U(N)$ , a rescaling of a period, or a different current normalization can change a coefficient without changing the underlying argument. Use the notation dictionary and large-N limits for these translations. Research articles give dated continuations with their own assumptions; a recent date alone does not make a paper the best first explanation.

Check the reading choice

In the round-sphere substitution, does replacing $H$ by $+i/\ell$ leave the spinor equation unchanged?
Does a holomorphy argument that allows a superpotential prove its coefficient is nonzero?
Does the appearance of thirty-two odd generators in the N=4 superconformal algebra mean the flat Poincaré theory has thirty-two Poincaré supercharges?

Answers

No. The coefficient becomes $-i/(2\ell)$ . Recheck the solution in its stated frame; changing a sign in the background is not a notation change at fixed fields.
No. The selected N=1 passage separates the symmetry-allowed form from the semiclassical input that establishes a nonzero coefficient, with a specified normalization scheme.
No. Sixteen are Poincaré generators and sixteen are conformal generators. Their roles in the algebra differ; the notation used for a smaller manifest subalgebra is a further separate choice.

Source directory

Open a title for its bibliographic record, author information, and selected passages used in the lessons, paper guides or research articles. The passage descriptions retain their source versions and qualifications. Follow the linked article for the calculation and for the reason that passage is relevant. These are selected readings, not a claim that every result in each paper has been reproduced.

3d N=2 theories and plumbing graphs: adding matter, gauging, and new dualities

Bibliographic record and author information.