HIGHER-DIMENSIONAL CHERN-SIMONS SUPERGRAVITY

A Chern-Simons action for supergravity in odd-dimensional spacetimes i s proposed. For all odd dimensions, the local symmetry group is a nont rivial supersymmetric extension of the Poincare group. In 2 + 1 dimens ions the gauge group reduces to super-Poincare, while for D = 5 it is super-Poincare with a central charge. In general, the extension is obt ained by the addition of a one-form field which transforms as an antis ymmetric fifth-rank tensor under Lorentz rotations. Since the Lagrangi an is a Chern-Simons density for the supergroup, the supersymmetry alg ebra closes off shell without the need of auxiliary fields.