Chern-Simons supergravity on supergroup manifolds

A bstract We construct N=1 d=3 AdS supergravity within the group manifold approach and compare it with Achucarro-Townsend Chern-Simons formulation of the same theory. We clarify the relation between the off-shell super gauge transformations of the Chern- Simons theory and the off-shell worldvolume supersymmetry transformations of the group manifold action. We formulate the Achucarro-Townsend model in a double supersymmetric action where the Chern-Simons theory with a supergroup gauge symmetry is constructed on a supergroup manifold. This framework is useful to establish a correspondence of degrees of freedom and auxiliary fields between the two descriptions of d=3 supergravity.