We give a general definition of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking which encompasses all the known gauge mediation models. In particular, it includes both models with messengers as well as direct mediation models. A formalism for computing the soft terms in the generic model is presented. Such a formalism is necessary in strongly-coupled direct mediation models where perturbation theory cannot be used. It allows us to identify features of the entire class of gauge mediation models and to distinguish them from specific signatures of various subclasses.
We review recent works on supersymmetry breaking and gauge mediation. We survey our current understanding of dynamical supersymmetry breaking mechanisms and describe new model building tools using duality, meta-stability, and stringy construction. We discuss phenomenological constraints and their solutions, paying attentions to issues with gaugino masses and electroweak symmetry breaking.
In the model of gauge mediation of SUSY breaking in the presence of tree-level mediation, the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism provides a different hierarchy of sparticle masses. We study the spectra and show the results to be like those in an effective supersymmetric model.
We study the mediation of supersymmetry breaking triggered by background fluxes in Type II string compactifications with N=1 supersymmetry. The mediation arises due to an U(1) vector multiplet coupling to both a hidden supersymmetry breaking flux sector and a visible D-brane sector. The required internal manifolds can be constructed by non-Kaehler resolutions of singular Calabi-Yau manifolds. The effective action encoding the U(1) coupling is then determined in terms of the global topological properties of the internal space. We investigate suitable local geometries for the hidden and visible …
We discuss the mediation of supersymmetry breaking from closed to open strings, extending and improving previous analysis of the authors in Nucl. Phys. B 695 (2004) 103 [hep-th/0403293]. In the general case, we find the absence of anomaly mediation around any perturbative string vacuum. When supersymmetry is broken by Scherk-Schwarz boundary conditions along a compactification interval perpendicular to a stack of D-branes, the gaugino acquires a mass at two loops that behaves as $m_{1/2}\sim g^4 m_{3/2}^3$ in string units, where $m_{3/2}$ is the gravitino mass and $g$ is the gauge coupling.
We explore the possibility of gauge mediation in a paradigm whereby supersymmetry is posited to be an accidental symmetry of Nature and the Standard Model fields are composite bound states that emerge from a conformal field theory. The resultant effective theory can, through sequestering and conformal dynamics, exhibit most of the properties of low energy supersymmetry breaking while averting a number of cosmological and astrophysical constraints of the traditional framework of gauge mediation via dynamical supersymmetry breaking. Of particular phenomenological interest is that in our scenario…
We present a general scheme for finding or creating a metastable vacuum in supersymmetric theories. By using the formalism, we show that there is a parameter region where a metastable vacuum exists in the Wess-Zumino model coupled to messenger fields. This model serves as a perturbative renormalizable model of direct gauge mediation.
SUSY breaking and its mediation are among the most important problems of supersymmetric generalizations of the standard model. The idea of gravity-mediated SUSY breaking, proposed in 1982 by Arnowitt, Chamseddine and Nath, and independently by Barbieri, Ferrara and Savoy, fits naturally into superstring theory, where it can be realized at both classical as well as quantum levels. This talk is dedicated to Pran Nath on his 65th birthday.
We give a unified treatment of different models of supersymmetry breaking and mediation from a four dimensional effective field theory standpoint. In particular a comparison between GMSB and various gravity mediated versions of SUSY breaking shows that, once the former is embedded within a SUGRA framework, there is no particular advantage to that mechanism from the point of view of FCNC suppression. We point out the difficulties of all these scenarios - in particular the cosmological modulus problem. We end with a discussion of possible string theory realizations.
We propose a direct gauge mediation model based on an uplifted metastable SUSY breaking coupled to supergravity. A constant superpotential plays an essential role to fix the moduli as well as breaking SUSY and R-symmetry and the cancellation of the cosmological constant. Gaugino masses are generated at leading order of SUSY breaking scale, and comparable to the sfermion masses as in the ordinary gauge mediation. Landau pole problem for QCD coupling can be easily solved since more than half of messengers become superheavy, which are heavier than the GUT scale.
We revisit the issue of gravitational contributions to soft masses in five-dimensional sequestered models. We point out that, unlike for the case of F-type supersymmetry breaking, for D-type breaking these effects generically give positive soft masses squared for the sfermions. This drastically improves model building. We discuss the phenomenological implications of our result.
We analyze an R-symmetry breaking deformation of the ISS model for a direct mediation of supersymmetry breaking from a metastable vacuum. The model is weakly coupled and calculable. The LSP gravitino is light (m_{3/2}<16 eV) and the MSSM spectrum is natural with a light Higgs. The supersymmetry breaking sector, which is usually hidden, is observable (m~1 TeV) and may be a candidate for cold dark matter. We discuss its production and signature at LHC. We propose a UV completion of the model in terms of a duality cascade.
We describe a framework for gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking in which the messengers are charged under the hidden sector gauge group but do not play a role in breaking supersymmetry. From this point of view, our framework is between ordinary gauge mediation and direct mediation. As an example, we consider the 3-2 model of dynamical supersymmetry breaking, and add to it massive messengers which are SU(2) doublets. We briefly discuss the phenomenology of this scenario.
We propose a new class of models with gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking, the cascade supersymmetry breaking. This class of models is consistent with the gravitino mass as low as O(1)eV without having suppressed gaugino masses, nor the Landau pole problems of the gauge coupling constants of the Standard Model below the scale of the grand unification. In particular, there is no supersymmetric vacuum in the vicinity of the supersymmetry breaking vacuum even for such a low gravitino mass. Thus, the model does not have a vacuum stability problem decaying into supersymmetric vacua.
Models with anomalous U(1) gauge symmetry contain various superfields which can have nonzero supersymmetry breaking auxiliary components providing the origin of soft terms in the visible sector, e.g. the U(1) vector superfield, the modulus or dilaton superfield implementing the Green-Schwarz anomaly cancellation mechanism, U(1)-charged but standard model singlet matter superfield required to cancel the Fayet-Iliopoulos term, and finally the supergravity multiplet. We examine the relative strength between these supersymmetry breaking components in a simple class of models, and find that various…
We consider a generic renormalizable and gauge invariant messenger sector and derive the sparticle mass spectrum using the formalism introduced for General Gauge Mediation. Our results recover many expressions found in the literature in various limits. Constraining the messenger sector with a global symmetry under which the spurion field is charged, we analyze Extraordinary Gauge Mediation beyond the small SUSY breaking limit. Finally, we include D-term contributions and compute their corrections to the soft masses. This leads to a perturbative framework allowing to explore models capable of f…
We present a model of supersymmetry breaking in which the contributions from gravity/modulus, anomaly, and gauge mediation are all comparable. We term this scenario "deflected mirage mediation," which is a generalization of the KKLT-motivated mirage mediation scenario to include gauge mediated contributions. These contributions deflect the gaugino mass unification scale and alter the pattern of soft parameters at low energies. In some cases, this results in a gluino LSP and light stops; in other regions of parameter space, the LSP can be a well-tempered neutralino. We demonstrate explicitly th…
We study the direct mediation of metastable supersymmetry breaking by a Φ^2-deformation to the ISS model and extend it by splitting both TrΦand TrΦ^2 terms in the superpotential and gauging the flavor symmetry. We find that with such an extension the enough long-lived metastable vacua can be obtained and the proper gaugino masses can be generated. Also, this allows for constructing a kind of models which can avoid the Landau pole problem. Especially, in our metastable vacua there exist a large region for the parameter m_3 which can satisfy the phenomenology requirements and allow for a low SUS…
We present a simple scheme for constructing models that achieve successful gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking. In addition to our previous work [1] that proposed drastically simplified models using metastable vacua of supersymmetry breaking in vector-like theories, we show there are many other successful models using various types of supersymmetry breaking mechanisms that rely on enhanced low-energy U(1)_R symmetries. In models where supersymmetry is broken by elementary singlets, one needs to assume U(1)_R violating effects are accidentally small, while in models where composite fields…
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 me…
We examine the deflected mirage mediation supersymmetry breaking (DMMSB) scenario, which includes contributions from three mediation mechanisms, namely anomaly mediation, gravity mediation and gauge mediation, using the one-loop renormalization group invariants (RGIs). We examine the effects on the RGIs at the threshold where the gauge messengers emerge, and derive the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters in terms of the RGIs. We further discuss determining the supersymmetry breaking mechanism using a limited set of invariants, and derive sum rules valid for the DMMSB. In addition we examine…
The supersymmetric SU(Nc) Yang-Mills theory coupled to Nf matter fields in the fundamental representation has meta-stable vacua with broken supersymmetry when Nc < Nf < 3/2 Nc. By gauging the flavor symmetry, this model can be coupled directly to the standard model. We show that it is possible to make a slight deformation to the model so that gaugino masses are generated and the Landau pole problem can be avoided. The deformed model has simple realizations on intersecting branes in string theory, where various features of the meta-stable vacua are encoded geometrically as brane configurations.
We examine a metastable $\mathcal{N}=1$ Macroscopic SO(N) SQCD model of Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih (ISS). We introduce various baryon and meson deformations, including multitrace operators and explore embedding an SO(10) parent of the standard model into two weakly gauged flavour sectors. Direct fundamental messengers and the symmetric pseudo-modulus messenger mediate SUSY breaking to the MSSM. Gaugino and sfermion masses are computed and compared for each deformation type. We also explore reducing the rank of the magnetic quark matrix of the ISS model and find an additional fundamental me…
Strongly coupled semi-direct gauge mediation models of supersymmetry breaking through massive mediators with standard model charges are investigated by means of composite degrees of freedom. Sizable mediation is realized to generate the standard model gaugino masses for a small mediator mass without breaking the standard model symmetries.
We examine the structure of soft supersymmetry breaking terms in KKLT models of flux compactification with low energy supersymmetry. Moduli are stabilized by fluxes and nonperturbative dynamics while a de Sitter vacuum is obtained by adding supersymmetry breaking anti-branes. We discuss the characteristic pattern of mass scales in such a set-up as well as some features of 4D N=1 supergravity breakdown by anti-branes. Anomaly mediation is found to always give an important contribution and one can easily arrange for flavor-independent soft terms. In its most attractive realization, the modulus m…
We study the modulus mediation of supersymmetry breaking motivated by superstring theory. We show that the renormalization group running of the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters due to the interactions of massive fields is canceled by the threshold corrections at one-loop order, if their mass is given by nonperturbative dynamics controlled by the same modulus that mediates supersymmetry breaking and a sum rule of the modular weights holds for the Yukawa couplings. As an example, we discuss order reduction of lepton flavor violation in the supersymmetric seesaw mechanism, which revives the…
We examine the effects of anomalous U(1)_A gauge symmetry on soft supersymmetry breaking terms while incorporating the stabilization of the modulus-axion multiplet responsible for the Green-Schwarz (GS) anomaly cancellation mechanism. In case of the KKLT stabilization of the GS modulus, soft terms are determined by the GS modulus mediation, the anomaly mediation and the U(1)_A mediation which are generically comparable to each other, thereby yielding the mirage mediation pattern of superparticle masses at low energy scale. Independently of the mechanism of moduli stabilization and supersymmetr…
We argue that the Polonyi problem can be avoided when our supersymmetry-breaking vacuum is surrounded by many supersymmetric vacua. We construct a dynamical class of supersymmetry-breaking models to demonstrate our point. These models naturally predict a small deviation from the standard big-bang nucleosynthesis.
Gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking is drastically simplified using generic superpotentials without U(1)_R symmetry by allowing metastable vacua.
The discovery of a standard-model-like Higgs at 126 GeV and the absence of squark signals thus far at the LHC both point towards a mini-split spectrum for supersymmetry. Within standard paradigms, it is non-trivial to realize a mini-split spectrum with heavier sfermions but lighter gauginos while simultaneously generating Higgs sector soft terms of the correct magnitude, suggesting the need for new models of supersymmetry breaking and mediation. In this paper, we present a new approach to mini-split model building based on gauge mediation by ``auxiliary groups'', which are the anomaly-free con…
We present a general phenomenological framework for dialing between gravity mediation, gauge mediation, and anomaly mediation. The approach is motivated from recent developments in moduli stabilization, which suggest that gravity mediated terms can be effectively loop suppressed and thus comparable to gauge and anomaly mediated terms. The gauginos exhibit a mirage unification behavior at a "deflected" scale, and gluinos are often the lightest colored sparticles. The approach provides a rich setting in which to explore generalized supersymmetry breaking at the LHC.
A consistent theory of supersymmetry breaking must have a hidden sector, an observable sector, and must be embedded in a locally supersymmetric theory which arises from string theory. For phenomenological reasons it must also transmit supersymmetry from the hidden to the visible sector in a dominantly flavor neutral manner. Also any such theory of supersymmetry breaking has to take into account the problem of quadratic divergences which arise once the theory is embedded in supergravity. A class of possible models that arise from GKP-KKLT type IIB string compactifications, incorporating all thi…
We propose a small extenion of the minimal gauge mediation through the combination of extended gauge mediation and conformal sequestering. We show that the focus point supersymmetry can be realized naturally, and the fine-tuning is signifcantly reduced compared to the minimal gauge mediation and extended gauge mediation without focus point. The Higgs boson mass is around 125 GeV, the gauginos remain light, and the gluino is likely to be detected at the next run of the LHC. However, the multi-TeV squarks is out of the reach of the LHC. The numerical calculation for finetuning shows that this mo…
We systematically study supersymmetry breaking with non-vanishing F and D terms. We classify the models into two categories and find that a certain class of models necessarily has runaway behavior of scalar potential, while the other needs the Fayet-Iliopoulos term to break supersymmetry. The latter class is useful to have a simple model of gauge mediation where the vacuum is stable everywhere and the gaugino mass is generated at the one-loop order.
One notoriously difficult problem in perturbative gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking via messenger fields is the generic presence of a phenomenologically unacceptable vacuum with messenger vevs, with a lower energy than the desired (MSSM) vacuum. We investigate the possibility that quantum corrections promote the latter to the ground state of the theory, and find that this is indeed feasible. For this to happen, the couplings of the messengers to the goldstino superfield must be small, and this implies an additional suppression of the MSSM soft terms with respect to the supersymmetry br…
We explore the possibility that supersymmetry breaking is mediated to the Standard Model sector through the interactions of a generalized axion multiplet that gains a F-term expectation value. Using an effective field theory framework we enumerate the most general possible set of axion couplings and compute the Standard Model sector soft-supersymmetry-breaking terms. Unusual, non-minimal spectra, such as those of both natural and split supersymmetry are easily implemented. We discuss example models and low-energy spectra, as well as implications of the particularly minimal case of mediation vi…
We propose a simple high-scale inflationary scenario based on a phenomenologically viable model with direct gauge mediation of low-scale supersymmetry breaking. Hybrid inflation is occurred in a hidden supersymmetry breaking sector. Two hierarchical mass scales to reconcile both high-scale inflation and gauge mediation are necessary for the stability of the metastable supersymmetry breaking vacuum. Our scenario is also natural in light of the Landau pole problem of direct gauge mediation.
We propose a hybrid mediation and hybrid supersymmetry breaking. In particular the RG-invariant anomaly mediation is considered. Together with additional gravity mediation the slepton tachyon problem of anomaly mediation is solved automatically. The special properties are that all of color sparticles masses fall into several TeV region due to the large $m_0$ and $m_{32}$ which are well beyond the scope of current LHC Run II limits. Unlike the gauge mediation, the dark matter candidate is still the lightest neutralino and the correct dark matter relic density can be realized within the framewor…
We study a five-dimensional supergravity model with boundary-localized visible sector exhibiting anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking, in which the central requirements of sequestering and radius stabilization are achieved perturbatively. This makes it possible to understand these various mechanisms in a more integrated and transparent fashion, mostly from the higher-dimensional viewpoint. Local supersymmetry, in the presence of visible sector quantum effects, is enforced by the formalism of the five-dimensional superconformal tensor calculus. The construction results in only mild warping, …
We investigate, in the general framework of KKLT, the mediation of supersymmetry breaking by fields propagating in the strongly warped region of the compactification manifold ('throat fields'). Such fields can couple both to the supersymmetry breaking sector at the IR end of the throat and to the visible sector at the UV end. We model the supersymmetry breaking sector by a chiral superfield which develops an F-term vacuum expectation value. It turns out that the mediation effect of vector multiplets propagating in the throat can compete with modulus-anomaly mediation. Moreover, such vector fie…
We study the breaking of supersymmetry and its transmission to the light states in the context of the minimal SU(5) grand unified theory, with no additional singlets. This simple theory can be taken as a prototype for a program of breaking simultaneously grand unified symmetry and supersymmetry. The main predictions are: (i) d=6 proton decay is completely negligible and d=5 is in accord with experiment, (ii) supersymmetry breaking is mainly mediated by gravity.
Until recently, dynamical supersymmetry breaking seemed an exceptional phenomenon, involving chiral gauge theories with a special structure. Recently it has become clear that requiring only metastable states with broken supersymmetry leads to a far broader class of theories. In this paper, we extend these constructions still further, finding new classes which, unlike earlier theories, do not have unbroken, approximate $R$ symmetries. This allows construction of new models with direct gauge mediation. These theories permit a relatively compact solution to the $μ$ problem.
Most phenomenologically acceptable supersymmetric models imply breaking of supersymmetry in a separate sector of fields introduced just for this purpose. Supersymmetry breaking is transferred to the Standard Model due to a certain interaction with this additional sector. In this review we disuss one of the popular mechanisms of such mediation with the key role played by the Standard Model gauge interactions. We consider general principles of gauge mediation and give the critical analysis of specific models together with their phenomenological and cosmological implications. We present also basi…
Combining anomaly with Z' mediation allows us to solve the tachyonic slepton problem of the former and avoid fine tuning in the latter. We describe how the two mechanisms can be combined, and some of the phenomenology of such a joint scenario.
We construct a holographic model of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in analogy to AdS/QCD models. Integrating out the bulk theory one obtains an entirely four dimensional effective action that encodes spontaneous supersymmetry breaking effects, coupled to external sources. Using only this four dimensional action it is possible to compute soft masses, scattering cross sections and determine the form factors of vector mesons. This construction lends itself to a more natural comparison with operator product expansions.
Despite its successes---such as solving the supersymmetric flavor problem---anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking is untenable because of its prediction of tachyonic sleptons. An appealing solution to this problem was proposed by Pomarol and Rattazzi where a threshold controlled by a light field deflects the anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking trajectory, thus evading tachyonic sleptons. In this paper we examine an alternate class of deflection models where the non-supersymmetric threshold is accompanied by a heavy, instead of light, singlet. The low energy form of this model is the so-c…
In the context of the weakly coupled heterotic string, we propose a new model of mediating supersymmetry breaking. The breakdown of supersymmetry in the hidden sector is transmitted to anti-generation fields via gravitational interactions. Subsequent transmission of the breaking to the MSSM sector occurs via gauge interactions. It is shown that the mass spectra of superparticles are phenomenologically viable.
We consider semi-direct gauge mediation models of supersymmetry breaking where the messengers are composite fields and their supersymmetric mass is naturally generated through quartic superpotential couplings. We show that such composite messenger models can be easily embedded in quiver gauge theories arising from D-branes at Calabi-Yau singularities, and argue that semi-direct gauge mediation is in fact a very natural option for supersymmetry breaking in D-brane models. We provide several explicit examples and discuss their salient phenomenological properties.
It is often the case that the naive introduction of the messenger sector to supersymmetry breaking models causes restoration of supersymmetry. We discuss a possibility of stabilizing the supersymmetry breaking vacuum by gravitational interaction.
The natural supersymmetry (SUSY) requires light stop quarks, light sbottom quark, and gluino to be around one TeV or lighter. The first generation squarks can be effectively large which does not introduce any hierarchy problem in order to escape the constraints from LHC. In this paper we consider a Yukawa deflect medation to realize the effective natural supersymmetry where the interaction between squarks and messenger are made natural under certain Frogget-Nelson $U(1)_X$ charge. The first generation squarks obtain large and postive contribution from the yukawa deflect mediation. The correspo…
Gravity mediation supersymmetry breaking become comparable to gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking contributions when messenger masses are close to the GUT scale. By suitably tuning the gravity contributions one can then modify the soft supersymmetry breaking sector to generate a large stop mixing parameter and a light higgs mass of 125 GeV. In this kind of hybrid models, however the nice features of gauge mediation like flavour conservation etc, are lost. To preserve the nice features, gravitational contributions should become important for lighter messenger masses and should be important on…
We extend the results of Mirabelli and Peskin to supergravity. We study the compactification on S_1/Z_2 of Zucker's off-shell formulation of 5D supergravity and its coupling to matter at the fixed points. We clarify some issues related to the off-shell description of supersymmetry breaking a la Scherk-Schwarz (here employed only as a technical tool) discussing how to deal with singular gravitino wave functions. We then consider `visible' and `hidden' chiral superfields localized at the two different fixed points and communicating only through 5D supergravity. We compute the one-loop correction…
Inspired by four dimensional (de)constructions, we use the framework of "General gauge mediation in five dimensions" to interpolate between gaugino and ordinary gauge mediation. In particular we emphasise that an intermediate hybrid regime of mediation may be obtained in these higher dimensional models as has been obtained in the quiver gauge models.
Gauge mediation models have two drawbacks, that is, the so-called μ-problem and a lack of predictability of the gravitino dark matter abundance. We show that conformal sequestering in the supersymmetry breaking sector offers attractive solutions to both problems. The correct mass scale of the μand B_μterms is generated by taking the gravitino mass of O(100) GeV without causing the flavor-changing neutral-current problem. Moreover, a large anomalous dimension of the supersymmetry breaking field naturally realizes the small stau and neutralino mass difference required for the coannihilation to w…
We show a calculable example of stable supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking models with O(10) eV gravitino mass based on the combination of D-term gauge mediation and U(1)' mediation. A potential problem of the negative mass squared for the SUSY standard model (SSM) sfermions in the D-term gauge mediation is solved by the contribution from the U(1)' mediation. On the other hand, the splitting between the SSM gauginos and sfermions in the U(1)' mediation is circumvented by the contributions from the D-term gauge mediation. Since the U(1)' mediation does not introduce any new SUSY vacua, we achieve a c…
We discuss some features of supersymmetry breaking induced by a brane-localized source which is stabilized at the IR end of warped throat, and also the resulting mirage mediation pattern of soft terms of the visible fields which are localized in the bulk space corresponding to the UV end of throat. Such supersymmetry breaking scheme can be naturally realized in KKLT-type string compactification, and predicts highly distinctive pattern of low energy superparticle masses which might be tested at the LHC.
We present a toy model which has the following properties: i) it is strongly coupled at a certain scale and breaks supersymmetry at this scale; ii) matter superfields of (one generation of) the Standard Model are effective low energy degrees of freedom of this strongly coupled theory; iii) direct gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking occurs due to messenger superfields that are also effective low energy degrees of freedom. We discuss the way to generalize this approach to realistic models with three generations. These models might be favorable from the point of view of string theory compac…
