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{{Unreferenced|date=May 2011}}
In [[theoretical physics]], a '''short supermultiplet''' is a [[supermultiplet]] i.e. a representation of the [[supersymmetry]] algebra whose dimension is smaller than <math>2^{N/2}</math> where <math>N</math> is the number of real supercharges. The representations that saturate the bound are known as the '''long supermultiplets'''.

The states in a long supermultiplet may be produced from a representative by the action of the lowering and raising operators, assuming that for any basis vector, either the lowering operator or its conjugate raising operator produce a new nonzero state. This is the reason for the dimension indicated above. On the other hand, the short supermultiplets admit a subset of supercharges that annihilate the whole representation. That is why the short supermultiplets contain the [[BPS state]]s, another description of the same concept.

The BPS states are only possible for objects that are either massless or massive extremal, i.e. carrying a maximum allowed value of some [[central charge]]s.

[[Category:Supersymmetry]]


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