Non-supersymmetric Vacua Research Articles

Brane-like solutions and other non-supersymmetric vacua

After recasting the standard charged and uncharged brane profiles in the harmonic gauge, we explore solutions with the same isometries where the potentials V = T eγ ϕ of ten-dimensional non-supersymmetric strings are taken into account. Combining a detailed catalog of the possible asymptotics with some numerical results suggests that these spherically symmetric backgrounds terminate at singularities within finite proper distances.

New families of scale separated vacua

Massive type IIA flux compactifications of the form AdS4 × X6, where X6 admits a Calabi-Yau metric and O6-planes wrapping three-cycles, display families of vacua with parametric scale separation between the compactification scale and the AdS4 radius, generated by an overall rescaling of internal four-form fluxes. For toroidal orbifolds one can perform two T-dualities and map this background to an orientifold of massless type IIA compactified on an SU(3)-structure manifold with fluxes. Via a 4d EFT analysis, we generalise this last construction and embed it into new branches of supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric vacua with similar features. We apply our results to propose new infinite families of vacua based on elliptic fibrations with metric fluxes. Parametric scale separation is achieved by an asymmetric flux rescaling which, however, in general is not a simple symmetry of the 4d equations of motion. At this level of approximation the vacua are stable but, unlike in the Calabi-Yau case, they display a non-universal mass spectrum of light fields.

Non-supersymmetric vacua and self-adjoint extensions

Internal intervals spanned by finite ranges of a conformal coordinate z and terminating at a pair of singularities are a common feature of many string compactifications with broken supersymmetry. The squared masses emerging in lower-dimensional Minkowski spaces are then eigenvalues of Schrödinger-like operators, whose potentials have double poles at the ends of the intervals. For one-component systems, the possible self-adjoint extensions of Schrödinger operators are described by points in AdS3 × S1, and those corresponding to independent boundary conditions at the ends of the intervals by points on the boundary of AdS3. The perturbative stability of compactifications to Minkowski space time depends, in general, on these choices of self-adjoint extensions. We apply this setup to the orientifold vacua driven by the “tadpole potential” V=T {e}^{frac{3}{2}phi } and find, in nine dimensions, a massive scalar spectrum, a unique choice of boundary conditions with stable tensor modes and a massless graviton, and a wide range of choices leading to massless and/or massive vector modes.

Spinor-Vector Duality and the Swampland

The Swampland Program aims to address the question, “when does an effective field theory model of quantum gravity have an ultraviolet complete embedding in string theory?”, and can be regarded as a bottom-up approach for investigations of quantum gravity. An alternative top-down approach aims to explore the imprints and the constraints imposed by string-theory dualities and symmetries on the effective field theory representations of quantum gravity. The most celebrated example of this approach is mirror symmetry. Mirror symmetry was first observed in worldsheet contructions of string compactifications. It was completely unexpected from the effective field theory point of view, and its implications in that context were astounding. In terms of the moduli parameters of toroidally compactified Narain spaces, mirror symmetry can be regarded as arising from mappings of the moduli of the internal compactified space. Spinor-vector duality, which was discovered in worldsheet constructions of string vacua, is an extension of mirror symmetry that arises from mappings of the Wilson line moduli and provide a probe to constrain and explore the moduli spaces of (2, 0) string compactifications. Mirror symmetry and spinor-vector duality are mere two examples of a much wider symmetry structure, whose implications have yet to be unravelled. A mapping between supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric vacua is briefly discussed. T-duality is another important property of string theory and can be thought of as phase-space duality in compact space. I propose that manifest phase-space duality and the related equivalence postulate of quantum mechanics provide the background independent overarching principles underlying quantum gravity.

Nothing is certain in string compactifications

A bubble of nothing is a spacetime instability where a compact dimension collapses. After nucleation, it expands at the speed of light, leaving “nothing” behind. We argue that the topological and dynamical mechanisms which could protect a compactification against decay to nothing seem to be absent in string compactifications once supersymmetry is broken. The topological obstruction lies in a bordism group and, surprisingly, it can disappear even for a SUSY-compatible spin structure. As a proof of principle, we construct an explicit bubble of nothing for a T3 with completely periodic (SUSY-compatible) spin structure in an Einstein dilaton Gauss-Bonnet theory, which arises in the low-energy limit of certain heterotic and type II flux compactifications. Without the topological protection, supersymmetric compactifications are purely stabilized by a Coleman-deLuccia mechanism, which relies on a certain local energy condition. This is violated in our example by the nonsupersymmetric GB term. In the presence of fluxes this energy condition gets modified and its violation might be related to the Weak Gravity Conjecture.We expect that our techniques can be used to construct a plethora of new bubbles of nothing in any setup where the low-energy bordism group vanishes, including type II compactifications on CY3, AdS flux compactifications on 5-manifolds, and M-theory on 7-manifolds. This lends further evidence to the conjecture that any non-supersymmetric vacuum of quantum gravity is ultimately unstable.

Systematics of type IIA moduli stabilisation

We analyse the flux-induced scalar potential for type IIA orientifolds in the presence of p-form, geometric and non-geometric fluxes. Just like in the Calabi-Yau case, the potential presents a bilinear structure, with a factorised dependence on axions and saxions. This feature allows one to perform a systematic search for vacua, which we implement for the case of geometric backgrounds. Guided by stability criteria, we consider configurations with a particular on-shell F-term pattern, and show that no de Sitter extrema are allowed for them. We classify branches of supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric vacua, and argue that the latter are perturbatively stable for a large subset of them. Our solutions reproduce and generalise previous results in the literature, obtained either from the 4d or 10d viewpoint.

Tachyonic Kaluza-Klein modes and the AdS swampland conjecture

We compute the Kaluza-Klein spectrum of the non-supersymmetric SO(3) × SO(3)-invariant AdS4 vacuum of 11-dimensional supergravity, whose lowest-lying Kaluza-Klein modes belong to a consistent truncation to 4-dimensional mathcal{N} = 8 supergravity and are stable. We show that, nonetheless, the higher Kaluza-Klein modes become tachyonic so that this non-supersymmetric AdS4 vacuum is perturbatively unstable within 11-dimensional supergravity. This represents the first example of unstable higher Kaluza-Klein modes and provides further evidence for the AdS swampland conjecture, which states that there are no stable non-supersymmetric AdS vacua within string theory. We also find 27 infinitesimal moduli amongst the Kaluza-Klein modes, which hints at the existence of a family of non-supersymmetric AdS4 vacua.

Off-shell unimodular N = 1, d = 4 supergravity

We formulate a unimodular N = 1, d = 4 supergravity theory off shell. We see that the infinitesimal Grassmann parameters defining the unimodular supergravity trans- formations are constrained and show that the conmutator of two infinitesinal unimodular supergravity transformations closes on transverse diffeomorphisms, Lorentz transforma- tions and unimodular supergravity transformations. Along the way, we also show that the linearized theory is a supersymmetric theory of gravitons and gravitinos. We see that de Sitter and anti-de Sitter spacetimes are non-supersymmetric vacua of our unimodular supergravity theory.

Non-tachyonic semi-realistic non-supersymmetric heterotic-string vacua

The heterotic--string models in the free fermionic formulation gave rise to some of the most realistic string models to date, which possess N=1 spacetime supersymmetry. Lack of evidence for supersymmetry at the LHC instigated recent interest in non-supersymmetric heterotic-string vacua. We explore what may be learned in this context from the quasi--realistic free fermionic models. We show that constructions with a low number of families give rise to proliferation of a priori tachyon producing sectors, compared to the non--realistic examples, which typically may contain only one such sector. The reason being that in the realistic cases the internal six dimensional space is fragmented into smaller units. We present one example of a quasi--realistic, non--supersymmetric, non--tachyonic, heterotic--string vacuum and compare the structure of its massless spectrum to the corresponding supersymmetric vacuum. While in some sectors supersymmetry is broken explicitly, i.e. the bosonic and fermionic sectors produce massless and massive states, other sectors, and in particular those leading to the chiral families, continue to exhibit fermi-bose degeneracy. In these sectors the massless spectrum, as compared to the supersymmetric cases, will only differ in some local or global U(1) charges. We discuss the conditions for obtaining $n_b=n_f$ at the massless level in these models. Our example model contains an anomalous U(1) symmetry, which generates a tadpole diagram at one loop-order in string perturbation theory. We speculate that this tadpole diagram may cancel the corresponding diagram generated by the one-loop non-vanishing vacuum energy and that in this respect the supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric vacua should be regarded on equal footing. Finally we discuss vacua that contain two supersymmetry generating sectors.

Dyonic ISO(7) supergravity and the duality hierarchy

Motivated by its well defined higher dimensional origin, a detailed study of $D=4$ $\mathcal{N}=8$ supergravity with a dyonically gauged $\textrm{ISO}(7) = \textrm{SO}(7) \ltimes \mathbb{R}^7$ gauge group is performed. We write down the Lagrangian and describe the tensor and duality hierarchies, focusing on an interesting subsector with closed field equations and supersymmetry transformations. We then truncate the $\mathcal{N}=8$ theory to some smaller sectors with $\mathcal{N}=2$ and $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetry and SU(3), $\textrm{G}_2$ and SO(4) bosonic symmetry. Canonical and superpotential formulations for these sectors are given, and their vacuum structure and spectra is analysed. Unlike the purely electric ISO(7) gauging, the dyonic gauging displays a rich structure of vacua, all of them AdS. We recover all previously known ones and find a new $\mathcal{N}=1$ vacuum with SU(3) symmetry and various non-supersymmetric vacua, all of them stable within the full $\mathcal{N}=8$ theory.

Analytic classes of metastable de Sitter vacua

In this paper, we give a systematic procedure for building locally stable dS vacua in $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity models motivated by string theory. We assume that one of the superfields has a Kahler potential of no-scale type and impose a hierarchy of supersymmetry breaking conditions. In the no-scale modulus direction the supersymmetry breaking is not small, in all other directions it is of order $\epsilon$. We establish the existence of an abundance of vacua for large regions in the parameter space spanned by $\epsilon$ and the cosmological constant. These regions exist regardless of the details of the other moduli, provided the superpotential can be tuned such that the off-diagonal blocks of the mass matrix are parametrically small. We test and support this general dS landscape construction by explicit analytic solutions for the STU model. The Minkowski limits of these dS vacua either break supersymmetry or have flat directions in agreement with a no-go theorem that we prove, stating that a supersymmetric Minkowski vacuum without flat directions cannot be continuously deformed into a non-supersymmetric vacuum. We also describe a method for finding a broad class of stable supersymmetric Minkowski vacua that can be F-term uplifted to dS vacua and which have an easily controllable SUSY breaking scale.

Dark matter density and the Higgs mass in LVS string phenomenology

The Large Volume Scenario for getting a non-supersymmetric vacuum in type IIB string theory leads, through the Weyl anomaly and renormalization group running, to an interesting phenomenology. However, for gravitino masses below 500 TeV there are cosmological problems and the resulting Higgs mass is well below 124 GeV. Here we discuss the phenomenology and cosmology for gravitino masses which are ≳500 TeV. We find (under some plausible cosmological assumptions) that not only is the cosmological modulus problem alleviated and the right value for dark matter density obtained, but also the Higgs mass is in the 122–125 GeV range. However the spectrum of SUSY particles will be too heavy to be observed at the LHC.

Higher derivative extension of 6D chiral gauged supergravity

Abstract Six-dimensional (1, 0) supersymmetric gauged Einstein-Maxwell supergravity is extended by the inclusion of a supersymmetric Riemann tensor squared invariant. Both the original model as well as the Riemann tensor squared invariant are formulated off-shell and consequently the total action is off-shell invariant without modification of the supersymmetry transformation rules. In this formulation, superconformal techniques, in which the dilaton Weyl multiplet plays a crucial role, are used. It is found that the gauging of the U(1) R-symmetry in the presence of the higher-order derivative terms does not modify the positive exponential in the dilaton potential. Moreover, the supersymmetric Minkowski4 × S 2 compactification of the original model, without the higher-order derivatives, is remarkably left intact. It is shown that the model also admits non-supersymmetric vacuum solutions that are direct product spaces involving de Sitter spacetimes and negative curvature internal spaces.

Heterotic domain-wall supersymmetry breaking

We describe briefly our new method to construct non-supersymmetric vacua in the setting of heterotic string theory compactifications with intrinsic torsion and background fluxes. This method is based on domain-wall supersymmetry breaking that was developed in the context of type II compactifications.

METASTABLE VACUA IN DEFORMED ${\mathcal N} = 2$ SUPERSYMMETRIC MODELS

We show that supersymmetric Abelian models that are obtained from deformations of those with [Formula: see text] supersymmetry also contain metastable vacua for a wide range of parameters. The deformations we consider are combinations of masses for charged and singlet fields, a singlet F-term and an anomalous D-term. We find that, in all cases, the nonsupersymmetric vacua are parametrically far from the supersymmetric ones and therefore metastable. Using retrofitting, we show that these metastable vacua may lead to semirealistic phenomenology.

Vacua and RG flows in N = 9 three dimensional gauged supergravity

We study some vacua of N=9 three dimensional gauged supergravity. The theory contains sixteen scalar fields parametrizing the exceptional coset space ${F_{4(-20)}}{SO(9)}$. Various AdS supersymmetric and some non-supersymmetric vacua are found in both compact and non-compact gaugings with gauge groups $SO(p)\times SO(9-p)$ for $p=0, 1, 2, 3, 4$, $G_{2(-14)}\times SL(2)$ and $Sp(1,2)\times SU(2)$. We also study many RG flow solutions, both analytic and numerical, interpolating between supersymmetric critical points in this theory. All the flows considered here are driven by a relevant operator of dimension $\Delta={3}{2}$. This operator breaks conformal symmetry as well as supersymmetry and drives the CFT in the UV to another CFT in the IR with lower supersymmetries.

Interpolations among NAHE-based supersymmetric and nonsupersymmetric string vacua

The quasi-realistic free fermionic heterotic-string models provide some of the most detailed examples to explore the phenomenology of string unification. While providing a powerful tool to generate models and their spectra, understanding the realisation of the free fermion models in a bosonic formalism will provide important insight into their basic properties away from the free fermion point. In this Letter we elucidate bosonic equivalent of the basic symmetry breaking pattern in the free fermion models from E8×E8 to SO(16)×SO(16) and exhibit the connection of the free fermion models with corresponding nonsupersymmetric vacua by interpolations.

META-STABLE BRANE CONFIGURATIONS BY QUARTIC SUPERPOTENTIAL FOR BIFUNDAMENTALS

The type IIA nonsupersymmetric meta-stable brane configuration consisting of three NS5-branes, D4-branes and anti-D4-branes where the electric gauge theory superpotential has a quartic term for the bifundamentals besides a mass term is constructed. By adding the orientifold 4-plane and 6-plane to this brane configuration, we also describe the intersecting brane configurations of type IIA string theory corresponding to the meta-stable nonsupersymmetric vacua of corresponding gauge theories.

META-STABLE BRANE CONFIGURATIONS WITH FIVE NS5-BRANES

From an [Formula: see text] supersymmetric electric gauge theory with the gauge group SU (Nc) × SU (N′c) with fundamentals for each gauge group, the bifundamentals and a symmetric flavor and a conjugate symmetric flavor for SU (Nc), we apply Seiberg dual to each gauge group independently and obtain two [Formula: see text] supersymmetric dual magnetic gauge theories with dual matters including the gauge singlets. By analyzing the F-term equations of the dual magnetic superpotentials, we describe the intersecting brane configurations of type IIA string theory corresponding to the meta-stable nonsupersymmetric vacua of these gauge theories. The case where the above symmetric flavor is replaced by an antisymmetric flavor is also discussed.

META-STABLE BRANE CONFIGURATIONS BY HIGHER-ORDER POLYNOMIAL SUPERPOTENTIAL

We construct the type IIA nonsupersymmetric meta-stable brane configuration consisting of (2k+1) NS5-branes and D4-branes where the electric gauge theory superpotential has an order (2k+2) polynomial for the bifundamentals. We find a rich pattern of nonsupersymmetric meta-stable states as well as the supersymmetric stable ones. By adding the orientifold 4-plane to this brane configuration, we also describe the intersecting brane configuration of type IIA string theory corresponding to the meta-stable nonsupersymmetric vacua of corresponding gauge theory.