Electroweak breaking and supersymmetry breaking

We discuss the clash between the absence of fine tuning in the Higgs potential and a sufficient suppression of flavour changing neutral current transitions in supersymmetric extensions of the standard model. It is pointed out that horizontalU(1) symmetry combined with theD-term supersymmetry breaking provides a realistic framework for solving both problems.     

Renormalization of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with soft supersymmetry breaking

The renormalization of supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories with soft supersymmetry breaking is presented using spurion fields for introducing the breaking terms. It is proven that renormalization of the fields and parameters in the classical action yields precisely the correct counterterms to cancel all divergences. In the course of the construction of higher orders additional independent parameters appear, but they can be shown to be irrelevant in physics respects. Thus, the only parameters with influence on physical amplitudes are the supersymmetric and the well-known soft breaking parameters. Received: 19 December 2001 / Published online: 15 March 2002     

Neutrino masses in supersymmetry: R-parity and leptogenesis

In the supersymmetric standard model of particle interactions, R-parity nonconservation is often invoked to obtain nonzero neutrino masses. We point out here that such interactions of the supersymmetric particles would erase any pre-existing lepton or baryon asymmetry of the universe before the electroweak phase transition through the B+L violating sphaleron processes. We also point out that all models of radiative generation of neutrino masses suffer from the same problem. We then show how neutrino masses may be obtained in supersymmetry (assuming R-parity conservation) together with successful leptogenesis and predict the possible existence of new observable particles.     

Low-scale leptogenesis and the domain wall problem in models with discrete flavor symmetries

We propose a new mechanism for leptogenesis, which is naturally realized in models with a flavor symmetry based on the discrete group A₄$A_4$, where the symmetry breaking parameter also controls the Majorana masses for the heavy right-handed (RH) neutrinos. During the early universe, for T?TeV$T?\text{TeV}$, part of the symmetry is restored, due to finite temperature contributions, and the RH neutrinos remain massless and can be produced in thermal equilibrium even at temperatures well below the most conservative gravitino bounds. Below this temperature the phase transition occurs and they become massive, decaying out of equilibrium and producing the necessary lepton asymmetry. Unless the symmetry is broken explicitly by Planck-suppressed terms, the domain walls generated by the symmetry breaking survive till the quark–hadron phase transition, where they disappear due to a small energy splitting between the A₄$A_4$ vacua caused by the QCD anomaly.     

Hard and soft supersymmetry breaking for 'graphinos' in uniform magnetic fields

Using irreducible and reducible representations of the Dirac matrices, we study the two- and four-component quantum mechanical supersymmetric (SUSY) theories for ultrarelativistic fermions in .2 C 1/ dimensions ('graphinos') in a background uniform magnetic field perpendicular to their plane of motion. We then consider ordinary and parity-violating mass terms and identify the former as a soft SUSY breaking term and the latter as the hard SUSY breaking one.     

Z'-mediated supersymmetry breaking

We consider a class of models in which supersymmetry breaking is communicated dominantly via a U1' gauge interaction, which also helps solve the mu problem. Such models can emerge naturally in top-down constructions and are a version of split supersymmetry. The spectrum contains heavy sfermions, Higgsinos, exotics, and Z' approximately 10-100 TeV, light gauginos approximately 100-1000 GeV, a light Higgs boson approximately 140 GeV, and a light singlino. A specific set of U1' charges and exotics is analyzed, and we present five benchmark models. The implications for the gluino lifetime, cold dark matter, and the gravitino and neutrino masses are discussed.     

Dynamical breaking of supersymmetry

General conditions for dynamical supersymmetry breaking are discussed. Very small effects that would usually be ignored, such as instantons of a grand unified theory, might break supersymmetry at a low energy scale. Examples are given (in 0 + 1 and 2 + 1 dimensions) in which dynamical supersymmetry breaking occurs. Difficulties that confront such a program in four dimensions are described.     

Mixing-induced spontaneous supersymmetry breaking

It is conjectured that flavor mixing furnishes a universal mechanism for the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry. The conjecture is proved explicitly for the mixing of two chiral N=1 supermultiplets and arguments for its general validity are given. That is an instance of the O?Raifeartaigh Lagrangian for which there is no tree-level nor perturbative breaking. Nonetheless, the dynamical breaking occurs due to the vacuum condensate, a mixing-induced nonperturbative effect that lifts the zero point energy.     

Constraints on supersymmetry breaking

Some non-perturbative constraints on supersymmetry breaking are derived. It is demonstrated that dynamical supersymmetry breaking does not occur in certain interesting classes of theories.     

Leptogenesis from supersymmetry breaking

We show that soft supersymmetry breaking terms involving the heavy sneutrinos can lead to sneutrino-antisneutrino mixing and to new sources of CP violation, which are present even if a single generation is considered. These terms are naturally present in supersymmetric versions of leptogenesis scenarios, and they induce indirect CP violation in the decays of the heavy sneutrinos, eventually generating a baryon asymmetry. This new contribution can be comparable to or even dominate over the asymmetry produced in traditional leptogenesis scenarios.     

Soft breaking of supersymmetry

Using superfield methods we discuss systematically explicit soft breaking of global supersymmetry. We find that, in a component field language, dimension-two operators are soft while, in general, dimension-three operators are not and introduce quadratic divergences not present in the unbroken theory. At the one-loop level we give a parallel discussion based on the effective potential.     

D-brane models and flux supersymmetry breaking

We describe recent work on constructing four-dimensional string models with moduli stabilized by field strength fluxes and chiral gauge sectors close to the Standard Model from D-brane configurations. We discuss how the interplay of both ingredients relates to phenomenological issues, in particular the appearance of soft terms on the D-brane gauge sector induce from non-supersymmetric flux backgrounds. To cite this article: A.M. Uranga, C. R. Physique 5 (2004).

Résumé

Nous décrivons des travaux récents de constructions de modèles de cordes à 4 dimensions ayant des modules stabilisés par des flux, ainsi que des secteurs chiraux de jauge proches du modèle standard, réalisés à partir de configurations de D-branes. Nous expliquons comment les liens entre les différents ingrédients relient des aspects phénoménologiques, en particulier l'apparition de termes doux dans le secteur de jauge des D-branes à partir de champs de fonds non-supersymétriques avec flux. Pour citer cet article : A.M. Uranga, C. R. Physique 5 (2004).     

Dynamical supersymmetry breaking and gauge anomalies

Some aspects of supersymmetric gauge theories and discussed. It is shown that dynamical supersymmetry breaking does not occur in supersymmetric QED in higher dimensions. The cancellation of both local (perturbative) and global (non-perturbative) gauge anomalies are also discussed in supersymmetric gauge theories. We argue that there is no dynamical supersymmetry breaking in higher dimensions in any supersymmetric gauge theories free of gauge anomalies. It is also shown that for supersymmetric gauge theories in higher dimensions with a compact connected simple gauge group, when the local anomaly-free condition is satisfied, there can be at most a possibleZ ₂ global gauge anomaly in extended supersymmetricSO(10) (or spin (10)) gauge theories inD=10 dimensions containing additional Weyl fermions in a spinor representation ofSO(10) (or spin (10)). In four dimensions with local anomaly-free condition satisfied, the only possible global gauge anomalies in supersymmetric gauge theories areZ ₂ global gauge anomalies for extended supersymmetricSP(2N) (N=rank) gauge theories containing additional Weyl fermions in a representation ofSP(2N) with an odd 2nd-order Dynkin index.     

On supersymmetry breaking in superstrings

We prove that the existence of a slightly massive or gravitino or gaugino in a class of gaussian string compactifications, implies the existence of an entire tower of such states below M_Planck, signaling the approach to a limit of decompactification.     

Metastable supersymmetry breaking without scales

We construct new examples of models of metastable D=4$D=4$N=1$N=1$ supersymmetry breaking in which all scales are generated dynamically. Our models rely on Seiberg duality and on the ISS mechanism of supersymmetry breaking in massive SQCD. Some of the electric quark superfields arise as composites of a strongly coupled gauge sector. This allows us to start with a simple cubic superpotential and an asymptotically free gauge group in the ultraviolet, and end up with an infrared effective theory which breaks supersymmetry dynamically in a metastable state.