# What is the difference between worldsheet supersymmetry and spacetime supersymmetry?

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What is the difference between worldsheet supersymmetry and spacetime supersymmetry? For worldline formulation of fermions quantum mechanics, there is a supersymmetry. But the corresponding spacetime theory (namely, QFT) is totally void of supersymmetry. Now to have fermionic excitations for strings, we need to add supersymmetry to the worldsheet, then how does the worldsheet supersymmetry induce spacetime supersymmetry?

asked Jun 27, 2016
edited Jun 27, 2016

The difference between the two is an elementary question and is correctly answered on Stackexchange. However, the answer there is wrong in its claim that the equivalence between the two (the second part of the question) is only an "accident" -- see e.g. http://www.slac.stanford.edu/cgi-wrap/getdoc/slac-pub-3919.pdf (Sen, 1986)

@dimension10, thank you very much for your comment.

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