On limit cycles in supersymmetric theories

Contrary to popular belief conformality does not require zero beta functions. This follows from the work of Jack and Osborn, and examples in non-supersymmetric theories were recently found by some of us. In this Letter we show that such examples are absent in unitary N = 1 supersymmetric four-dimensional field theories. More specifically, we show to all orders in perturbation theory that the beta-function vector field of such theories does not admit limit cycles. A corollary of our result is that unitary N = 1 supersymmetric four-dimensional theories cannot be superscale-invariant without being superconformal. Published by Elsevier B.V.