The spectrum of a class of supersymmetric theories with false vacua

Abstract

The spectrum of a supersymmetric quantum mechanics model, whose potential has a steep supersymmetric minimum and a broad non-supersymmetric minimum, is analyzed. With the exception of the supersymmetric ground state, the low-energy spectrum is found to be determined entirely by the non-supersymmetric well. The model is motivated by effective lagrangians proposed for supersymmetric QCD. It is speculated that in an equivalent field theory exhibiting a supersymmetric true vacuum and a non-supersymmetric false vacuum, the false vacuum can play an important roˆle in the physics, and that the lowest energy excitations are extended field configurations involving a new mass scale.