Metastable Dynamical Supersymmetry Breaking Research Articles

Gravity mediation retrofitted

Most discussion of metastable dynamical supersymmetry breaking (MDSB) has focussed on low energy breaking, as in gauge mediation. It is of interest to consider possible implications for intermediate scale breaking ("gravity mediation"), especially as the early LHC results suggest the possibility that supersymmetry, if broken at relatively low energies, might be tuned. A somewhat high scale for susy breaking could ameliorate the usual flavor problems of gravity mediation, resolve the question of cosmological moduli, and account for a Higgs with mass well above $M_Z$. We study MDSB in gravity mediation, especially retrofitted models in which discrete $R$ symmetries play an important role, considering questions including implications of symmetries for $B$ and $A$ terms, and the genericity of split supersymmetry.

DiscreteRsymmetries and low energy supersymmetry

If nature exhibits low energy supersymmetry, discrete (non-$Z_2$) R symmetries may well play an important role. In this paper, we explore such symmetries. We generalize gaugino condensation, constructing large classes of models which are classically scale invariant, and which spontaneously break discrete R symmetries (but not supersymmetry). The order parameters for the breaking include chiral singlets. These simplify construction of models with metastable dynamical supersymmetry breaking. We explain that in gauge mediation, the problem of the cosmological constant makes "retrofitting" particularly natural -- almost imperative. We describe new classes of models, with interesting scales for supersymmetry breaking, and which allow simple solutions of the $\mu$ problem. We argue that models exhibiting such R symmetries can readily solve not only the problem of dimension four operators and proton decay, but also dimension five operators. On the other hand, in theories of "gravity mediation", the breaking of R symmetry is typically of order $M_p$, R parity is required to suppress dimension four $B$ and $L$ violating operators, and dimension five operators remain problematic.

Single Trace and Multitrace Deformations of Supersymmetric QCD

In this report we briefly discuss phenomenologically-viable metastable dynamical supersymmetry breaking in supersymmetric QCD. The construction relies on the work of Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih, complemented with single trace and multitrace deformations. This is a summary of work done in collaboration with R. Essig, K. Sinha, G. Torroba and M.J. Strassler [R. Essig, J. F. Fortin, K. Sinha, G. Torroba and M. J. Strassler, arXiv:0812.3213 [hep-th] ].

O'KKLT at finite temperature

We study whether finite temperature corrections decompactify the internal space in KKLT compactifications with an uplifting sector given by a system that exhibits metastable dynamical supersymmetry breaking. More precisely, we calculate the one-loop temperature corrections to the effective potential of the volume modulus in the KKLT model coupled to the quantum corrected O'Raifeartaigh model. We prove that for the original KKLT model, namely with one exponent in the non-perturbative superpotential, the finite temperature potential is runaway when at zero temperature there is a dS minimum. On the other hand, for a non-perturbative superpotential of the race-track type with two exponents, we demonstrate that the temperature-dependent part of the effective potential can have local minima at finite field vevs. However, rather unexpectedly, it turns out that these minima do not affect the structure of the full effective potential and so the volume modulus is stabilized at the local minimum of the zero temperature potential for the whole range of validity of the supergravity approximation.

Meta-stable dynamical supersymmetry breaking near points of enhanced symmetry

We show that metastable supersymmetry breaking is generic near certain enhanced symmetry points of gauge theory moduli spaces. Our model consists of two sectors coupled by a singlet and combines dynamical supersymmetry breaking with an O'Raifeartaigh mechanism in terms of confined variables. All relevant mass parameters, including the supersymmetry breaking scale, are generated dynamically. The metastable vacua appear as a result of a balance between non-perturbative and perturbative quantum effects along a pseudo-runaway direction.

A natural renormalizable model of metastable SUSY breaking

We propose a model of metastable dynamical supersymmetry breaking in which all scales are generated dynamically. Our construction is a simple variant of the Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih model, with quark masses induced by renormalizable couplings to an auxiliary supersymmetric QCD sector. Since all scales arise from dimensional transmutation, the model has no fundamental dimensionful parameters. It also does not rely on higher-dimensional operators.

Gauge/gravity duality and meta-stable dynamical supersymmetry breaking

We engineer a class of quiver gauge theories with several interesting features by studying D-branes at a simple Calabi-Yau singularity. At weak 't Hooft coupling we argue using field theory techniques that these theories admit both supersymmetric vacua and meta-stable non-supersymmetric vacua, though the arguments indicating the existence of the supersymmetry breaking states are not decisive. At strong 't Hooft coupling we find simple candidate gravity dual descriptions for both sets of vacua.

Dynamical SUSY breaking in meta-stable vacua

Dynamical supersymmetry breaking in a long-lived meta-stable vacuum is a phenomenologically viable possibility. This relatively unexplored avenue leads to many new models of dynamical supersymmetry breaking. Here, we present a surprisingly simple class of models with meta-stable dynamical supersymmetry breaking: N=1 supersymmetric QCD, with massive flavors. Though these theories are strongly coupled, we definitively demonstrate the existence of meta-stable vacua by using the free-magnetic dual. Model building challenges, such as large flavor symmetries and the absence of an R-symmetry, are easily accommodated in these theories. Their simplicity also suggests that broken supersymmetry is generic in supersymmetric field theory and in the landscape of string vacua.