Spontaneous Supersymmetry Breaking Research Articles

Spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in inhomogeneous supersymmetric field theories and BPS vacua

We study spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in inhomogeneous extensions of N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 1 supersymmetric field theory models in 4-dimensions. The N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 1 Abelian Higgs model with the inhomogeneous mass parameter and the FI coefficient that are dependent on spatial coordinates, as well as the O’Raifeartaigh model with all its parameters being dependent on spatial coordinates, are studied in detail. In the presence of inhomogeneous parameters, half supersymmetry can be preserved by adding appropriate inhomogeneous deformations to the original Lagrangians. The inhomogeneous deformations often break the R-symmetry explicitly. In cases where the inhomogeneous deformations do not break the R-symmetry explicitly, we demonstrate that spontaneous breaking of the R-symmetry is infeasible. We argue that those models can not be spontaneous supersymmetry breaking models, according to the Nelson-Seiberg argument. We comment on this issue in the context of a generic N\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$ \\mathcal{N} $$\\end{document} = 1 supersymmetric model as well.

Inflation, SUSY breaking, and primordial black holes in modified supergravity coupled to chiral matter

We propose a novel model of the modified (Starobinsky-like) old-minimal-type supergravity coupled to a chiral matter superfield, that can simultaneously describe multi-field inflation, primordial black hole (PBH) formation, dark matter (DM), and spontaneous supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking after inflation in a Minkowski vacuum. The PBH masses in our supergravity model of double slow-roll inflation, with a short phase of “ultra-slow-roll” between two slow-roll phases, are close to 10^{18} g. We find that a significant PBH fraction in the allowed mass window can be supplemented by spontaneous SUSY breaking in the vacuum with the gravitino mass close to the scalaron (inflaton) mass M of the order 10^{13} GeV. Our supergravity model favors the composite nature of DM as a mixture of PBH and heavy gravitinos as the lightest SUSY particles. The composite DM significantly relaxes fine-tuning needed for the whole PBH-DM. The PBH-DM fraction is derived, and the second-order gravitational wave background induced by the enhanced scalar perturbations is calculated. Those gravitational waves may be accessible by the future space-based gravitational interferometers.

1D Majorana Goldstinos and partial supersymmetry breaking in quantum wires

Realizing Majorana modes in topological superconductors, i.e., the condensed-matter counterpart of Majorana fermions in particle physics, may lead to a major advance in the field of topologically-protected quantum computation. Here, we introduce one-dimensional, counterpropagating, and dispersive Majorana modes as bulk excitations of a periodic chain of partially-overlapping, zero-dimensional Majorana modes in proximitized nanowires via periodically-modulated fields. This system realizes centrally-extended quantum-mechanical supersymmetry with spontaneous partial supersymmetry breaking. The massless Majorana modes are the Nambu-Goldstone fermions (Goldstinos) associated with the spontaneously broken supersymmetry. Their experimental fingerprint is a dip-to-peak transition in the zero-bias conductance, which is generally not expected for Majorana modes overlapping at a finite distance. Moreover, the Majorana modes can slide along the wire by applying a rotating magnetic field, realizing a “Majorana pump”. This may suggest new braiding protocols and implementations of topological qubits.

Penrose limit of MNa solution and spin chains in three-dimensional field theories

In three dimensions, a theory with spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry was described holographically by the Maldacena-Nastase (MNa) solution. We revisit the issue of its Penrose limit, and compare the resulting pp wave and its string eigenstates to a sector of the theory on 5-branes reduced on S3, and a spin chain-like system. We obtain many of the features of the pp wave analysis, but a complete matching still eludes us. We suggest possible explanations for the resulting partial mismatch, and compare against other spin chains for 3-dimensional field theories with gravity duals.

Supersymmetric particle and Higgs boson masses from the landscape: Dynamical versus spontaneous supersymmetry breaking

Perturbative supersymmetry breaking on the landscape of string vacua is expected to favor large soft terms as a power-law or log distribution, but tempered by an anthropic veto of inappropriate vacua or vacua leading to too large a value for the derived weak scale -- a violation of the atomic principle. Indeed, scans of such vacua yield a statistical prediction for light Higgs boson mass m_h~ 125 GeV with sparticles (save possibly light higgsinos) typically beyond LHC reach. In contrast, models of dynamical SUSY breaking (DSB) -- with a hidden sector gauge coupling g^2 scanned uniformly -- lead to gaugino condensation and a uniform distribution of soft parameters on a log scale. Then soft terms are expected to be distributed as $m_{\rm soft}^{-1}$ favoring small values. A scan of DSB soft terms generally leads to $m_h\ll 125$ GeV and sparticle masses usually below LHC limits. Thus, the DSB landscape scenario seems excluded from LHC search results. An alternative is that the exponential suppression of the weak scale is set anthropically on the landscape via the atomic principle.

PT-symmetry and supersymmetry: interconnection of broken and unbroken phases

The broken and unbroken phases of P T and supersymmetry in optical systems are explored for a complex refractive index profile in the form of a Scarf potential, under the framework of supersymmetric quantum mechanics. The transition from unbroken to the broken phases of P T -symmetry, with the merger of eigenfunctions near the exceptional point is found to arise from two distinct realizations of the potential, originating from the underlying supersymmetry. Interestingly, in P T -symmetric phase, spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry occurs in a parametric domain, possessing non-trivial shape invariances, under reparametrization to yield the corresponding energy spectra. One also observes a parametric bifurcation behaviour in this domain. Unlike the real Scraf potential, in P T -symmetric phase, a connection between complex isospecrtal superpotentials and modified Korteweg-de Vries equation occurs, only with certain restrictive parametric conditions. In the broken P T -symmetry phase, supersymmetry is found to be intact in the entire parameter domain yielding the complex energy spectra, with zero-width resonance occurring at integral values of a potential parameter.

Standard model from a supergravity model with a naturally small cosmological constant

Guided by the naturalness criterion for an exponentially small cosmological constant, we present a string theory motivated 4-dimensional mathcal{N} = 1 non-linear supergravity model (or its linear version with a nilpotent superfield) with spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. The model encompasses the minimal supersymmetric standard model, the racetrack Kähler uplift, and the KKLT anti-D3-branes, and use the nilpotent superfield to project out the undesirable interaction terms as well as the unwanted degrees of freedom to end up with the standard model (not the supersymmetric version) of strong and electroweak interactions.

Alpha -attractors from supersymmetry breaking

We construct new models of inflation and spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in de Sitter vacuum, with a single chiral superfield, where inflaton is the superpartner of the goldstino. Our approach is based on hyperbolic Kähler geometry, and a gauged (non-axionic) U(1)_R symmetry rotating the chiral scalar field by a phase. The U(1)_R gauge field combines with the angular component of the chiral scalar to form a massive vector, and single-field inflation is driven by the radial part of the scalar. We find that in a certain parameter range they can be approximated by simplest Starobinsky-like (E-model) alpha -attractors, thus predicting n_s and r within 1sigma CMB constraints. Supersymmetry (and R-symmetry) is broken at a high scale with the gravitino mass m_{3/2} > rsim 10^{14} GeV, and the fermionic sector also includes a heavy spin-1/2 field. In all the considered cases the inflaton is the lightest field of the model.

On the stability of open-string orbifold models with broken supersymmetry

We consider an open-string realisation of N=2→N=0 spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry in four-dimensional Minkowski spacetime. It is based on type IIB orientifold theory compactified on T2×T4/Z2, with Scherk–Schwarz supersymmetry breaking implemented along T2. We show that in the regions of moduli space where the supersymmetry breaking scale is lower than the other scales, there exist configurations with minima that have massless Bose-Fermi degeneracy and hence vanishing one-loop effective potential, up to exponentially suppressed corrections. These backgrounds describe non-Abelian gauge theories, with all open-string moduli and blowing up modes of T4/Z2 stabilized, while all untwisted closed-string moduli remain flat directions. Other backgrounds with strictly positive effective potentials exist, where the only instabilities arising at one loop are associated with the supersymmetry breaking scale, which runs away. All of these backgrounds are consistent non-perturbatively.

The Super-Stückelberg procedure and dS in pure supergravity.

Understanding de Sitter space in supergravity-and string theory-has led to an intense amount of work for more than two decades, largely motivated by the discovery of the accelerated expansion of the Universe in 1998. In this paper, we consider a non-trivial generalization of unimodular gravity to minimal supergravity, which allows for de Sitter solutions without the need of introducing any matter. We formulate a superspace version of the Stückelberg procedure, which restores diffeomorphism and local supersymmetry invariance. This introduces the goldstino associated with spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry in a natural way. The cosmological constant and gravitino mass are related to the vacuum expectation value of the components of a Lagrange multiplier imposing a super-unimodularity condition.

Heterotic − type I dual pairs, rigid branes and broken SUSY

The moduli space of toroidal type I vacua, which are consistent at the non-perturbative level, is composed of independent branches characterized by the number (0, 16 or 32) of rigid branes sitting on top of orientifold planes. This structure persists also when supersymmetry is spontaneously broken à la Scherk–Schwarz. We show that all the components of the moduli space in dimension D≥5 indeed admit heterotic dual components, by explicitly constructing heterotic-type I dual pairs with the rank of the gauge group reduced by 0, 8 or 16 units. In the presence of spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry, the dual pairs we consider are also free of tachyonic instabilities at the one-loop level, provided the scale of supersymmetry breaking is lower than the string scale.

Supergravity as the Dark Side of the Universe

The Dark Side of the Universe, which includes the cosmological inflation in the early Universe, the current dark energy and dark matter, can be theoretically described by supergravity, though it is non-trivial. We recall the arguments pro and contra supersymmetry and supergravity, and define the viable supergravity models describing the Dark Side of the Universe in agreement with all current observations. Our approach to inflation is based on the Starobinsky model, the dark energy is identified with the positive cosmological constant (de Sitter vacuum), and the dark matter particle is given by the lightest superparticle identified with the supermassive gravitino. The key role is played by spontaneous supersymmetry breaking.

Aspects of gauged R symmetry in SU(1,1)/U(1) supergravity

We propose a novel realization of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in de Sitter vacuum by F- and D-terms in $N=1$ four-dimensional supergravity coupled to a chiral superfield with $SU(1,1)/U(1)$ target space. Our construction features gauged $U(1)_R$ symmetry rotating the chiral scalar field by a phase. Both SUSY and R-symmetry can be spontaneously broken, and for two particular parameter choices we obtain no-scale supergravity with positive tunable cosmological constant.

Gravitino condensate in N = 1 supergravity coupled to the N = 1 supersymmetric Born–Infeld theory

Abstract The $N=1$ supersymmetric Born–Infeld theory coupled to $N=1$ supergravity in four spacetime dimensions is studied in the presence of a cosmological term with spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. The consistency is achieved by compensating a negative contribution to the cosmological term from the Born–Infeld theory by a positive contribution originating from the gravitino condensate. This leads to an identification of the Born–Infeld scale with the supersymmetry-breaking scale. The dynamical formation of the gravitino condensate in supergravity is reconsidered and the induced one-loop effective potential is derived. Slow-roll cosmological inflation with the gravitino condensate as the inflaton (near the maximum of the effective potential) is viable against the Planck 2018 data and can lead to the inflationary (Hubble) scale as high as $10^{12}$ GeV. Uplifting the Minkowski vacuum (after inflation) to a de Sitter vacuum (dark energy) is possible by the use of the alternative Fayet–Iliopoulos term. Some major physical consequences of our scenario for reheating are also briefly discussed.

2D Volkov-Akulov Model as a TT[over ¯] Deformation.

We show that the two-dimensional N=(2,2) Volkov-Akulov action that describes the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry is a TT[over ¯] deformation of a free fermionic theory. Our findings point toward a possible relation between nonlinear supersymmetry and TT[over ¯] flows.

Complex Langevin simulations of zero-dimensional supersymmetric quantum field theories

We investigate the possibility of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in a class of zero-dimensional ${\cal N} = 2$ supersymmetric quantum field theories, with complex actions, using complex Langevin dynamics and stochastic quantization. Our simulations successfully capture the presence or absence of supersymmetry breaking in these models. The expectation value of the auxiliary field under twisted boundary conditions was used as an order parameter to capture spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in these models.

Polonyi–Starobinsky supergravity with inflaton in a massive vector multiplet with DBI and FI terms

We propose the Starobinsky-type inflationary model in the matter-coupled N = 1 four-dimensional supergravity with the massive vector multiplet that has inflaton (scalaron) and goldstino amongst its field components, whose action includes the Dirac–Born–Infeld-type kinetic term and the generalized (new) Fayet–Iliopoulos-type term, without gauging the R-symmetry. The N = 1 chiral matter (‘hidden sector’) is described by the modified Polonyi model needed for spontaneous supersymmetry breaking after inflation. We compute the bosonic action and the scalar potential of the model, and show that it can accommodate the positive (observed) cosmological constant (as the dark energy) and the spontaneous supersymmetry breaking at high scale after the Starobinsky inflation.

Supersymmetry breaking and ghost Goldstino in modulated vacua

We discuss spontaneous supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking mechanisms by means of modulated vacua in four-dimensional ${\cal N} =1$ supersymmetric field theories. The SUSY breaking due to spatially modulated vacua is extended to the cases of temporally and lightlike modulated vacua, using a higher-derivative model with a chiral superfield, free from the Ostrogradsky instability and the auxiliary field problem. For all the kinds of modulated vacua, SUSY is spontaneously broken and the fermion in the chiral superfield becomes a Goldstino. We further investigate the stability of the modulated vacua. The vacua are (meta)stable if the vacuum energy density is non-negative. However, the vacua become unstable due to the presence of the ghost Goldstino if the vacuum energy density is negative. Finally, we derive the relation between the presence of the ghost Goldstino and the negative vacuum energy density in the modulated vacua using the SUSY algebra.

Duality and confinement in 3d [formula omitted] “chiral” SU(N) gauge theories

We study low-energy dynamics of three-dimensional N=2SU(N) “chiral” gauge theories with F fundamental and F¯ anti-fundamental matters without a Chern–Simons term. Compared to a naive semi-classical analysis of the Coulomb branch, its quantum structure is highly richer than expected due to so-called “dressed” Coulomb branch (monopole) operators. We propose dualities and confinement phases for the “chiral” SU(N) theories. The theories with N>F>F¯ exhibit spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. The very many Coulomb branch operators generally remain exactly massless and are non-trivially mapped under the dualities. Some dualities lead to a novel duality between SU(N) and USp(2N˜) theories. For the 3d N=2SU(2) gauge theory with 2F doublets, there are generally F+2 “chiral” and “non-chiral” dual descriptions.

Gauge principle and spontaneous symmetry breaking

Spatially modulated states of order-parameter fields as gauge (compensating) fields are considered. It is shown that an inhomogeneous vacuum occurs in infinite physical systems only as a result of introducing higher-order derivatives (for scalar fields) into Lagrangians. Possible phase transitions in systems with higher-order derivatives are also investigated. The discrete variants of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in classical field theories with higher-order derivatives are discussed.