N = 4 Superconformal Mechanics and the Potential Structure of AdS Spaces

The dynamics of an N = 4 spinning particle in a curved background is described using the N = 4 superfield formalism. The SU(2)local×SU(2)global N = 4 superconformal symmetry of the particle action requires the background to be a real “Kähler–like” manifold whose metric is generated by a sigma–model superpotential. The anti–de–Sitter spaces are shown to belong to this class of manifolds. e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected] § On leave from Institute for Theoretical Physics, NSC “Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology”, Kharkov 61108, Ukraine. E-mail: [email protected] e-mail: [email protected]