Superspace expansion of the 11D linearized superfields in the pure spinor formalism, and the covariant vertex operator

Abstract

11D pure spinors have been shown to successfully describe 11D supergravity in a manifestly super-Poincaré covariant manner. The feasibility of its actual usage for scattering amplitude computations requires an efficient manipulation of the superfields defining linearized 11D supergravity. In this paper, we directly address this problem by finding the superspace expansions of these superfields, at all orders in θ, from recursive relations their equations of motion obey in Harnad-Shnider-like gauges. After introducing the 11D analogue of the 10D $$ \mathcal{ABC} $$ ABC superparticle, we construct, for the first time, a fully covariant vertex operator for 11D supergravity by making use of the linearized 11D superfields. Notably, we show that this vertex reproduces the Green-Gutperle-Kwon 11D operators in light-cone gauge.