Supersymmetry Breaking Research Articles

Crescendo beyond the horizon: more gravitational waves from domain walls bounded by inflated cosmic strings

Abstract Gravitational-wave (GW) signals offer a unique window into the dynamics of the early universe. GWs may be generated by the topological defects produced in the early universe, which contain information on the symmetry of UV physics. We consider the case in which a two-step phase transition produces a network of domain walls bounded by cosmic strings. Specifically, we focus on the case in which there is a hierarchy in the symmetry-breaking scales, and a period of inflation pushes the cosmic string generated in the first phase transition outside the horizon before the second phase transition. We show that the GW signal from the evolution and collapse of this string-wall network has a unique spectrum, and the resulting signal strength can be sizeable. In particular, depending on the model parameters, the resulting signal can show up in a broad range of frequencies and can be discovered by a multitude of future probes, including the pulsar timing arrays and space- and ground-based GW observatories. As an example that naturally gives rise to this scenario, we present a model with the first phase transition followed by a brief period of thermal inflation driven by the field responsible for the second stage of symmetry breaking. The model can be embedded into a supersymmetric setup, which provides a natural realization of this scenario. In this case, the successful detection of the peak of the GW spectrum probes the soft supersymmetry breaking scale and the wall tension.

Generalised Fayet-Iliopoulos D-terms in supergravity and inflation driven by supersymmetry breaking

Generalised Fayet-Iliopoulos D-terms in supergravity and inflation driven by supersymmetry breaking

Decoding the Gaugino Code Naturally at High-Lumi LHCs

Natural supersymmetry with light higgsinos is most favored to emerge from the string landscape, since the volume of a scan parameter space shrinks to tiny volumes for electroweak unnatural models. Rather general arguments favor a landscape selection of soft SUSY breaking terms tilted to large values, but they are tempered by the atomic principle that the derived value of the weak scale in each pocket universe lies not too far from its measured value in our universe. But, that leaves (at least) three different paradigms for gaugino masses in natural SUSY models: unified (as in nonuniversal Higgs models), anomaly mediation form (as in natural AMSB), and mirage mediation form (with comparable moduli- and anomaly-mediated contributions). We perform landscape scans for each of these, and we show that they populate different, but overlapping, positions in m(ℓℓ¯) and m(wino) space. The first of these may be directly measurable at high-lumi LHC via the soft opposite-sign dilepton plus jets plus E/T signature arising from higgsino pair production, while the second of these could be extracted from direct wino pair production, leading to same-sign diboson production.

Hint to supersymmetry from the GR vacuum

The S-matrix formulation of gravity suggests that the θ-vacuum structure must not be sustained by the theory. We point out that, when applied to the vacuum of general relativity, this criterion hints to supersymmetry. The topological susceptibility of gravitational vacuum induced by Eguchi-Hanson instantons can be eliminated neither by spin-1/2 fermions nor by an axion coupled via them since such fermions do not provide instanton zero modes. Instead, the job is done by a spin-3/2 fermion, hence realizing a local supersymmetry. This scenario also necessitates the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry and predicts the existence of axion of R symmetry which gets mass exclusively from the gravitational instantons. The R axion can be a viable dark matter candidate. Matching between the index and the anomaly imposes a constraint that spin-1/2 fermions should not contribute to the chiral gravitational anomaly. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Geometric Landscape Annealing as an Optimization Principle Underlying the Coherent Ising Machine

Given the fundamental importance of combinatorial optimization across many diverse domains, there has been widespread interest in the development of unconventional physical computing architectures that can deliver better solutions with lower resource costs. However, a theoretical understanding of their performance remains elusive. We develop such understanding for the case of the coherent Ising machine (CIM), a network of optical parametric oscillators that can be applied to any quadratic unconstrained binary optimization problem. We focus on how the CIM finds low-energy solutions of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick spin glass. As the laser gain of this system is annealed, the CIM interpolates between gradient descent on coupled soft spins to descent on coupled binary spins. By combining the Kac-Rice formula, the replica method, and supersymmetry breaking, we develop a detailed understanding of the evolving geometry of the high-dimensional energy landscape of the CIM as the laser gain increases, finding several phase transitions in the landscape, from flat to rough to rigid. Additionally, we develop a novel cavity method that provides a geometric interpretation of supersymmetry breaking in terms of the reactivity of a rough landscape to specific external perturbations. Our energy landscape theory successfully matches numerical experiments, provides geometric insights into the principles of CIM operation, and yields optimal annealing schedules. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Leptogenesis from composite singlets

We argue that dual singlets accommodate the thermal leptogenesis in the context of metastable supersymmetry breaking. This framework suggests that the reheating temperature is as low as O(104) GeV, and besides the neutrino masses, solely induced from the dual fermions, are present at O(0.1) eV. We also expect that the unstable gravitino, though long-lived, may cause a clear signal of the neutrino flux at O(10) MeV. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Flavino dark matter in a non-Abelian discrete flavor model

We study a relic density of the “flavino” dark matter in modified Altarelli and Feruglio A4 model which is respecting the SU(2)L × A4 × Z3 × U(1)R symmetry. We calculate the Lagrangian from the superpotential in the model. In estimating the relic density, we consider the relevant interactions from the Lagrangian that realize the vacuum expectation value alignments and charged lepton masses where we assume that the supersymmetry breaking effects are small for “flavon” sector. As a result, we find the degenerate masses between the lightest “flavon” and “flavino”, and only two parameters in the potential determines the relic density. Then the allowed parameter space of these parameters are estimated from the relic density calculation taking a constraint from lepton flavor violation into account. We also briefly discuss other dark matter physics such as the direct detection, indirect detection, and collider search.

Spontaneous CP violation and partially broken modular flavor symmetries

We study the realization of spontaneous CP violation through moduli stabilization. In modular flavor models, the source of CP violation is the vacuum expectation values of the complex structure moduli of toroidal compact space. We demonstrate that the combined effects of Type IIB flux compactifications with modular invariant couplings between the moduli and matter fields can induce spontaneous CP violation without or with supersymmetry breaking. Furthermore, some general properties of CP and modular invariant scalar potentials are presented. It is found that certain modifications or partial breakings of modular symmetry are useful in generating spontaneous CP violation.

Confronting Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model Flat Direction Inflation with Planck/BICEP Data

Abstract We study the scenario of inflection point inflation where a flat direction of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) is identified with the inflaton. Specifically, we consider in full generality the cases where an MSSM flat direction is lifted by a higher-dimensional superpotential whose dimension is $n=4,5,6,7,9$. We confront the inflection point inflation scenarios with various n with the Planck and BICEP data, and thereby constrain the soft supersymmetry breaking mass and the coefficient of the higher-dimensional operator that lifts the flat direction.

HL-LHC sensitivity to higgsinos from natural SUSY with gravitino LSP

In the realm of natural supersymmetric models, higgsinos are typically the lightest electroweakinos. In gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking models, the lightest higgsino-dominated particles decay into a Z-boson or a Higgs boson (h), along with an ultra-light gravitino (G~\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\ ilde{G}$$\\end{document}) serving as the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). This scenario suggests a significant non-resonant hh production. Basing on the recent global fitting results of the G~\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\ ilde{G}$$\\end{document}-EWMSSM (MSSM with light electroweakinos and an eV-scale gravitino as the LSP) performed by the GAMBIT collaboration, which support a higgsino-dominated electroweakino as light as 140 GeV, we develop two simplified models to evaluate their detection potential at the high-luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) with s=14TeV\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\sqrt{s} = 14~\ extrm{TeV}$$\\end{document} and an integrated luminosity of 3000fb-1\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$3000~\ extrm{fb}^{-1}$$\\end{document}. The first model examines the processes where heavier higgsino-dominated states decay into soft W/Z bosons, while the second focuses on direct decays of all three higgsino-dominated electroweakinos into W/Z/h plus a G~\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\ ilde{G}$$\\end{document}. Our study, incorporating both models and their distinct decay channels, utilizes detailed Monte Carlo simulations for signals and standard model backgrounds. We find that the HL-LHC can probe higgsinos up to 575 GeV, potentially discovering or excluding the natural SUSY scenario in the context of a gravitino LSP. Further, we reinterpret this discovery potential using the GAMBIT global fit samples, and find that the entire parameter space of |μ|≤500GeV\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$|\\mu | \\le 500~\ extrm{GeV}$$\\end{document} with an electroweak fine-tuning measure (ΔEW\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\Delta _{\ extrm{EW}}$$\\end{document}) under 100 in G~\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\ ilde{G}$$\\end{document}-EWMSSM is accessible at the HL-LHC.

Supermassive gauginos in supergravity inflation with high-scale SUSY breaking

A model of supergravity inflation we recently proposed can produce slow roll inflation and a realistic spectrum of particles even without F-term supersymmetry breaking. Supersymmetry is broken only by a D-term induced by a recently discovered new type of Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) term. Almost all supersymmetric partners of the standard model fields can get masses as high as the inflationary Hubble scale. The exception is gauginos, for which the vanishing of F-terms implies an exact cancellation that keeps their masses exactly zero. To cure this problem without spoiling the simplicity of our model we introduce a new term that further enlarges the space of supergravity effective actions. It is an F-term that, similarly to the new FI term, becomes singular in the supersymmetric limit. We show that this term can produce large gaugino masses without altering the spectrum of other states and without lowering the cutoff of the effecive theory.

Hybrid inflation, reheating and dark radiation in a IIB perturbative moduli stabilization scenario

We study the cosmological implications of an effective field theory model derived within a configuration of D7 brane stacks in the framework of type-IIB string theory. We consider a suitable geometric setup where the Kähler moduli fields are stabilized and the parametric space is constrained so that a de Sitter vacuum is ensured. In addition to the moduli fields we also take into account the usual Higgs and matter fields included in the effective field theory. In this background, we implement the standard hybrid inflation scenario with a singlet scalar field acting as the inflaton and the Higgs states serving as waterfall fields. Radiative corrections and soft supersymmetry breaking terms play an essential role in the realization of a successful inflationary scenario consistent with the present cosmological data. Small tensor-to-scalar ratio values are predicted, which can be probed in future planned experiments. Further constraints on the model’s parameters are derived from bounds on dark radiation which is measured as a contribution to the effective number of neutrino species Neff. In particular, we find an excess of ∆Neff ≤ 0.95 at 2σ confidence level with natural values of the involved couplings.

Stringy constraints on primordial electromagnetic fields in axion inflation

We study primordial electromagnetic fields in effective actions of string theory. In contrast to a conventional scenario of producing primordial electromagnetic fields induced by the axion inflation, we deal with the Dirac-Born-Infeld action as a non-linear generation of Maxwell theory. It turns out that the intensity of generated electromagnetic fields is bounded from above by the string scale which can also be rewritten in terms of supersymmetry breaking scale in the context of type IIB Large Volume Scenario. The instability parameter ξ is constrained by the tadpole cancellation condition of D3-branes and a realization of hierarchy between the string scale and the Hubble scale of inflation. Hence, the magnetogenesis can be realized in the limited corner of the string landscape due to the O\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{O} $$\\end{document}(1) value of the coefficient of Chern-Simons coupling.

Can quantum Rabi model with A2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\\varvec{A}}^\ extbf{2}$$\\end{document}-term avoid no-go theorem and make quantum simulation of mass-enhancement in SUSY breaking?

We study the model of a mass enhancement in the supersymmetric quantum mechanics. This model is so simple that it may be implemented as a quantum simulation of the mass enhancement taking place when supersymmetry (SUSY) is spontaneously broken. It is evolved from a prototype based on the quantum Rabi model. Here, our quantum simulation means the realization of the target quantum phenomenon as a physical entity with some quantum-information devices. The original prototype is given as a mathematical model, and has the transition from the N=2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$${\\mathcal {N}}=2$$\\end{document} SUSY to its spontaneous breaking, though it has no mass enhancement. It is recently reported that the transition is observed for this prototype in a trapped-ion experiment with devising a method experimentally to realize the transition. The model proposed in this paper describes how the mass enhancement takes place in the fermionic states by the excitation of the 1-mode light boson in the SUSY breaking. In this model, the bosonic and fermionic states are graded by qubits. Although our model’s interaction does not have the Higgs potential, the mass enhancement in the fermionic states is caused by the radiative enhancement with the help of the X-gate’s swap between the fermionic and bosonic states.

Hybrid inflation from supersymmetry breaking

We extend a recently proposed framework, dubbed inflation by supersymmetry breaking, to hybrid inflation by introducing a waterfall field that allows to decouple the supersymmetry breaking scale in the observable sector from the inflation scale, while keeping intact the inflation sector and its successful predictions: naturally small slow-roll parameters, small field initial conditions and absence of the pseudo-scalar companion of the inflaton, in terms of one free parameter which is the first order correction to the inflaton Kähler potential. During inflation, supersymmetry is spontaneously broken with the inflaton being the superpartner of the goldstino, together with a massive vector that gauges the R-symmetry. Inflation arises around the maximum of the scalar potential at the origin where R-symmetry is unbroken. Moreover, a nearby minimum with tuneable vacuum energy can be accommodated by introducing a second order correction to the Kähler potential. The inflaton sector can also play the role of the supersymmetry breaking ‘hidden’ sector when coupled to the (supersymmetric) Standard Model, predicting a superheavy superparticle spectrum near the inflation scale. Here we show that the introduction of a waterfall field provides a natural way to end inflation and allows for a scale separation between supersymmetry breaking and inflation. Moreover, the study of the global vacuum describing low energy Standard Model physics can be done in a perturbative way within a region of the parameter space of the model.

Search for pair production of higgsinos in events with two Higgs bosons and missing transverse momentum in s=13 TeV pp collisions at the ATLAS experiment

This paper presents a search for pair production of higgsinos, the supersymmetric partners of the Higgs bosons, in scenarios with gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. Each higgsino is assumed to decay into a Higgs boson and a nearly massless gravitino. The search targets events where each Higgs boson decays into bb¯, leading to a reconstructed final state with at least three energetic b-jets and missing transverse momentum. Two complementary analysis channels are used, with each channel specifically targeting either low or high values of the higgsino mass. The low-mass (high-mass) channel exploits 126 (139) fb−1 of s=13 TeV data collected by the ATLAS detector during Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. No significant excess above the Standard Model prediction is found. At 95% confidence level, masses between 130 GeV and 940 GeV are excluded for higgsinos decaying exclusively into Higgs bosons and gravitinos. Exclusion limits as a function of the higgsino decay branching ratio to a Higgs boson are also reported. © 2024 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration 2024 CERN

Search for long-lived particles using displaced vertices and missing transverse momentum in proton-proton collisions at s=13 TeV

A search for the production of long-lived particles in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC is presented. The search is based on data collected by the CMS experiment in 2016–2018, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 137 fb−1. This search is designed to be sensitive to long-lived particles with mean proper decay lengths between 0.1 and 1000 mm, whose decay products produce a final state with at least one displaced vertex and missing transverse momentum. A machine learning algorithm, which improves the background rejection power by more than an order of magnitude, is applied to improve the sensitivity. The observation is consistent with the standard model background prediction, and the results are used to constrain split supersymmetry (SUSY) and gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models with different gluino mean proper decay lengths and masses. This search is the first CMS search that shows sensitivity to hadronically decaying long-lived particles from signals with mass differences between the gluino and neutralino below 100 GeV. It sets the most stringent limits to date for split-SUSY models and gauge-mediated SUSY breaking models with gluino proper decay length less than 6 mm. © 2024 CERN, for the CMS Collaboration 2024 CERN

Bare mass effects on the reheating process after inflation

We consider the effects of a bare mass term for the inflaton, when the inflationary potential takes the form V(ϕ)=λϕk about its minimum with k≥4. We concentrate on k=4, but discuss general cases as well. Further, we assume λϕend2≫mϕ2, where ϕend is the inflaton field value when the inflationary expansion ends. We show that the presence of a mass term (which may be present due to radiative corrections or supersymmetry breaking) can significantly alter the reheating process, as the equation of state of the inflaton condensate changes from wϕ=13 to wϕ=0 when λϕ2 drops below mϕ2. We show that, for a mass mϕ≳3λ14TRH, the mass term will dominate at reheating. The value of λ is relatively model independent as it is normalized by the cosmic microwave background perturbation spectrum. For T models of inflation, this leads to mϕ≳TRH/250. We compute the effects on the reheating temperature for cases where reheating is due to inflaton decay (to fermions, scalars, or vectors) or to inflaton scattering (to scalars or vectors). For scattering to scalars and in the absence of a decay, there is always a residual inflaton background that acts as cold dark matter. In this case, we derive a strong upper limit to the inflaton bare mass which for T models is mϕ<350 MeV(TRH/1010 GeV)3/5. We also consider the effect of the bare mass term on the fragmentation of the inflaton condensate. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

PeV-Scale SUSY and Cosmic Strings from F-Term Hybrid Inflation

We consider F-term hybrid inflation (FHI) and SUSY breaking in the context of a B−L extension of the MSSM that largely respects a global U(1)R symmetry. The hidden sector Kaehler manifold enjoys an enhanced SU(1,1)/U(1) symmetry, with the scalar curvature determined by the achievement of a SUSY-breaking de Sitter vacuum without undesirable tuning. FHI turns out to be consistent with the data, provided that the magnitude of the emergent soft tadpole term is confined to the range (1.2–100) TeV, and it is accompanied by the production of B−L cosmic strings. If these are metastable, they are consistent with the present observations from PTA experiments on the stochastic background of gravitational waves with dimensionless tension Gμcs≃(1−9.2)·10−8. The μ parameter of the MSSM arises by appropriately adapting the Giudice–Masiero mechanism and facilitates the out-of-equilibrium decay of the R saxion at a reheat temperature lower than about 71 GeV. Due to the prolonged matter-dominated era, the gravitational wave signal is suppressed at high frequencies. The SUSY mass scale turns out to lie in the PeV region.

Penrose limit of T dual of Maldacena-Nastase solution and dual orbifold field theory

Here we study the Penrose limit of the T dual of the Maldacena-Nastase solution and its field theory dual, in order to better understand the effect of T duality in this case. We find a matching of string pp wave oscillators and their masses to the field theory modes, that are rearranged after T duality. The effect of T duality on the long “annulon-type” operators is found as a symmetry of the (2+1)-dimensional confining theory with spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. Published by the American Physical Society 2024