In a model-independent formalism of gauge mediation, Meade, Seiberg, and Shih have shown that hidden sector effects are captured by two-point correlation functions of the gauge current superfields and that, generically, many of the characteristic features of gauge mediated SUSY breaking do not survive. We review the general story, particularly the way that the correlators enter the low-energy effective action and give rise to soft-breaking terms. We then specialize to the case where there is a small parameter, F/m^2, where m is the mass scale characterizing the hidden sector, and F is the strength of the SUSY breaking. To leading nontrivial order in this small parameter, we show that many of the classic predictions of gauge mediated SUSY breaking are recovered.
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.
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…
Gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking is drastically simplified using generic superpotentials without U(1)_R symmetry by allowing metastable vacua.
We compute the sparticle mass spectrum in the minimal four-dimensional construction that interpolates between gaugino mediation and ordinary gauge mediation.
We have studied $R$-symmetrc gauge mediation models with Fayet-Iliopoulos terms. We give a concrete example of hidden sector with an $U(1)_H$ gauge theory and a Fayet-Iliopoulos term, which can induce distinctive soft terms in the visible sector, and help solving fine tuning problems in models of $R$-symmetric gauge mediation.
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 investigate minimally completed models of extraordinary gauge mediation, which are examples of direct gauge mediation, at finite temperature both analytically and numerically. These models may have both supersymmetry breaking and supersymmetric vacua. Our interest is in determining the preferred vacuum. We do so by computing the finite temperature Coleman-Weinberg potential and studying its thermal evolution.
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 study models of "(extra)ordinary gauge mediation," which consist of taking ordinary gauge mediation and extending the messenger superpotential to include all renormalizable couplings consistent with SM gauge invariance and an R-symmetry. We classify all such models and find that their phenomenology can differ significantly from that of ordinary gauge mediation. Some highlights include: arbitrary modifications of the squark/slepton mass relations, small mu and Higgsino NLSP's, and the possibility of having fewer than one effective messenger. We also show how these models lead naturally to ex…
A large class of non-minimal gauge mediation models, such as (semi-)direct gauge mediation, predict a hierarchy between the masses of the supersymmetric standard model gauginos and those of scalar particles. We perform a comprehensive study of these non-minimal gauge mediation models, including mass calculations in semi-direct gauge mediation, to illustrate these features, and discuss the phenomenology of the models. We point out that the cosmological gravitino problem places stringent constraints on mass splittings, when the Bino is the NLSP. However, the GUT relation of the gaugino masses is…
Recently there has been much progress in building models of gauge mediation, often with predictions different than those of minimal gauge mediation. Meade, Seiberg, and Shih have characterized the most general spectrum which can arise in gauge mediated models. We discuss some of the challenges of building models of General Gauge Mediation, especially the problem of messenger parity and issues connected with R symmetry breaking and CP violation. We build a variety of viable, weakly coupled models which exhibit some or all of the possible low energy parameters.
We give a general formulation of semi-direct gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking where the messengers interact with the hidden sector only through a weakly gauged group. Using this general formulation, we provide an explicit proof that the MSSM gaugino masses are vanishing to leading order in the gauge couplings. On the other hand, the MSSM sfermion masses have, generically, a non-vanishing leading contribution. We discuss how such a mechanism can successfully be combined with other mediation schemes which give tachyonic sfermions, such as sequestered anomaly mediation and some direct ga…
In an attempt to implement gauge mediation in string theory, we study string effective supergravity models of supersymmetry breaking, containing anomalous gauge factors. We discuss subtleties related to gauge invariance and the stabilization of the Green-Schwarz moduli, which set non-trivial constraints on the transmission of supersymmetry breaking to MSSM via gauge interactions. Given those constraints, it is difficult to obtain the dominance of gauge mediation over gravity mediation. Furthermore, generically the gauge contributions to soft terms contain additional non-standard terms coming f…
We investigate the phenomenology of general gauge mediation in the MSSM. We apply the strict definition of gauge mediated SUSY-breaking where B_mu is generated only through gauge interactions, and as a result is very close to zero at the messenger scale. In this setup tan beta is a prediction rather than an input. The input parameters are independent scales for the gaugino masses, the scalar masses and the messenger mass in accord with general gauge mediation. We investigate the spectra, the constraints on the parameter space from direct searches and indirect observables, as well as fine-tunin…
We show that a large class of phenomenologically viable models for gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking based on meta-stable vacua can be realized in local Calabi-Yau compactifications of string theory.
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 briefly review our analysis of a model with non supersymmetric vacua in N=1 gauge theories with adjoint matter and no R-symmetry. We show here that this model without any modification fits into a direct gauge mediation scenario and leads to massive gauginos.
The spectrum of a class of gaugino mediation models with arbitrary hidden sector is considered. These models are defined by a diagonal breaking of the mediating gauge group, which places them outside the realm of General Gauge Mediation. While gauginos get masses as in ordinary gauge mediation, the scalar masses are screened.
We generalize the General Gauge Mediation formalism to allow for the possibility of gauge messengers. Gauge messengers occur when charged matter fields of the susy-breaking sector have non-zero F-terms, which leads to tree-level, susy-breaking mass splittings in the gauge fields. A classic example is that SU(5) / SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) gauge fields could be gauge messengers. We give a completely general, model independent, current-algebra based analysis of gauge messenger mediation of susy-breaking to the visible sector. Characteristic aspects of gauge messengers include enhanced contributions t…
We introduce a model independent parametrization for a subclass of gauge mediated theories, which we refer to as Yukawa-gauge mediation. Within this formalism we study the resulting soft masses in the visible spectrum. We find general expressions for the gaugino and scalar masses. Under generic conditions, the gaugino mass is screened, vanishing at first order in the SUSY breaking scale.
The inclusion of gauge messengers in models of gauge mediation allows for more general predictions that those described by the framework of general gauge mediation. Motivated by this, we explore some models of gauge mediation with gauge messengers in SU(5) GUTs. In most previous attempts of building viable models where gauge messengers play a role in determining the soft terms, squark and/or slepton masses turned out to be tachyonic. The objective of this paper is to address this problem and propose two possible solutions, one of which has a natural realization in the solution of the doublet-t…
We propose a new framework of low-scale gauge-mediated supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking with a gravitino mass of O(100) TeV. The usual 4D gauge mediation models predict a light gravitino and suffer from cosmological problems. In our framework, a heavy gravitino in gauge mediation is realized with a flat extra-dimension, whose compactification scale is around the grand unified theory scale. Superparticle masses of the visible sector from gravity/anomaly mediation are suppressed, and they are purely generated by usual gauge mediation on the visible brane. Importantly, the Higgs Bmu-term vanishes at…
We propose a mechanism for relaxing a constraint on the number of messengers in low-scale gauge mediation models. The Landau pole problem for the standard-model gauge coupling constants in the low-scale gauge mediation can be circumvented by using our mechanism. An essential ingredient is a large positive anomalous dimension of messenger fields given by a large Yukawa coupling in a conformal field theory at high energies. The positive anomalous dimension reduces the contribution of the messengers to the beta function of the standard-model gauge couplings.
In the gauge mediation mechanism, the effects of the hidden sector are characterized by a set of correlation functions of the global symmetry current of the hidden sector. We present methods to compute these correlators in cases with strongly coupled hidden sectors. Several examples are presented to demonstrate the technique explicitly.
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 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.
Anomalously small gaugino masses are a common feature of various models of direct gauge mediation. This problem is closely related to the vacuum structure of the theory. In this paper we show that massive SQCD can have SUSY-breaking vacua which are qualitatively different from the ISS vacuum. These novel vacua are metastable with respect to decay to the ISS vacuum. We demonstrate the possibility of addressing the gaugino mass problem in this framework. We study the properties of these vacua and construct an example of a model of direct gauge mediation.
We consider a relative of semi-direct gauge mediation where the hidden sector exists at large 't Hooft coupling. Such scenarios can be difficult to describe using perturbative field theory methods but may fall into the class of holographic gauge mediation scenarios, meaning that they are amenable to the techniques of gauge/gravity duality. We use a recently found gravity solution to examine one such case where the hidden sector is a cascading gauge theory resulting in a confinement scale not much smaller than the messenger mass. In the original construction of holographic gauge mediation, as i…
We generalize to string theory a construction, originally proposed in field theory, that generates a hierarchy in the splittings between members of super-multiplets in various sectors of the theory.
We discuss the thermal evolution of the spurion and messenger fields of ordinary gauge mediation models taking into account the Standard Model degrees of freedom. It is shown that for thermalized messengers the metastable susy breaking vacuum becomes thermally selected provided that the susy breaking sector is sufficiently weakly coupled to messengers or to any other observable field.
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 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.
We analyze a model of Semi-Direct Gauge Mediation in which the hidden sector is the 4-1 model and the messenger fields are charged under the U(1) gauge group. At tree level, the SUSY-breaking F-terms induce D-terms from which SUSY-split messenger masses arise. We calculate these masses by three complementary methods. Additionally, we compute the one-loop corrections to the masses. We consider this model both with and without a Fayet-Iliopoulos term for the hidden sector U(1). Finally, we write down a simple model of Minimal Gauge Mediation in which the only scale is dynamically generated.
Extraordinary gauge mediation extension of deflected AMSB scenarios can be interesting because it can accommodate together the deflection in the Kahler potential and the superpotential. We revisit the EGM scenario and derive the analytical expressions for soft SUSY breaking parameters in EGM and EGM extension of deflected AMSB scenarios with wavefunction renormalization approach, especially the case with vanishing gauge beta-function at an intermediate energy scale. The Landau pole and proton decay constraints are also discussed.
Direct gauge mediation models using the Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih (ISS) metastable vacua suffer from the Landau pole problem of the standard model gauge couplings and the existence of R symmetry forbidding gaugino masses. These problems may be solved by using the recently proposed SUSY breaking models in a conformal window of the vector-like $SU(N_C)$ gauge theory with gauge singlets. In this paper we propose a model of gauge mediation based on the SUSY-breaking model in the conformal window, and study the dynamics for the SUSY breaking. In the model, there are massive vector-like bifundamenta…
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.
We address the mu-problem in the context of General Gauge Mediation (GGM). We classify possible models depending on the way the Higgs fields couple to the supersymmetry breaking hidden-sector. The different types of models have distinct signatures in the MSSM parameters. We find concrete and surprisingly simple examples based on messengers in each class. These examples lead to all the soft masses and a consistent Higgs-sector.
We explore various aspects of General Gauge Mediation(GGM). We present a reformulation of the correlation functions used in GGM, and further elucidate their IR and UV properties. Additionally we clarify the issue of UV sensitivity in the calculation of the soft masses in the MSSM, highlighting the role of the supertrace over the messenger spectrum. Finally, we present weakly coupled messenger models which fully cover the parameter space of GGM. These examples demonstrate that the full parameter space of GGM is physical and realizable. Thus it should be considered a valid basis for future pheno…
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.
Recent progress in realising dynamical supersymmetry breaking allows the construction of simple and calculable models of gauge mediation. We discuss the phenomenology of the particularly minimal case in which the mediation is direct, and show that there are generic new and striking predictions. These include new particles with masses comparable to those of the Standard Model superpartners, associated with the pseudo-Goldstone modes of the dynamical SUSY breaking sector. Consequently there is an unavoidable departure from the MSSM. In addition the gaugino masses are typically significantly ligh…
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.
We discuss gauge mediation in the case where the hidden sector is strongly coupled but, via the gauge-gravity correspondence, admits a weakly-coupled description in terms of a warped higher-dimensional spacetime. In this framework, known as holographic gauge mediation, the visible-sector gauge group is realized in the gravitational description by probe D-branes and the non-supersymmetric state by normalizable perturbations to the geometry. Using the formalism of general gauge mediation, supersymmetry-breaking soft terms in the visible sector can be related to the two-point functions of the hid…
We present a gauge mediation principle for BSM theories where exact UV scale invariance is broken in a hidden sector. The relevant configurations are those in which the Standard Model and a hidden sector emanate from a scale invariant pair of UV theories that communicate only via gauge interactions. We compute the radiatively induced Higgs potential which contains logarithmic mass-squared terms that lead to unusual Higgs self-couplings. Its other couplings are unchanged.
We propose semi-direct Gauge-Yukawa mediation of supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking. The messenger fields mediating SUSY breaking to the visible sector do not directly couple with the goldstino field, and instead they have gauge and Yukawa interactions with some primary messenger fields which couple directly with the goldstino fields. From the explicit Feynman diagram calculations for the SUSY breaking soft masses, we find that the SUSY particle spectra can be realistic. Especially, this generalization of semi-direct gauge mediation solves the massless gaugino mass problem since the holomorphic sof…
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 discuss constraints from cosmology on the models with direct gauge mediation based on the ISS supersymmetry breaking models. It is a generic feature that the ISS models possess a U(1) symmetry which is eventually spontaneously broken, when the models are based on the gauge symmetries with complex representations. We show that the resultant pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson causes problems in cosmology, which leads to severe constraints on the models. We also show that most parameter space of the models can be probed by observing gravitational waves emitted from the cosmic string network when the…
In order to generate, in the context of gauge mediation, a Higgs mass around 126 GeV that avoids the little hierarchy problem, we explore a set of models where the messengers are directly coupled to new vector-like fields at the TeV scale in addition to the usual low energy degrees of freedom. We find that in this context, stop masses lighter than 2 TeV and large $A$-terms are generated, thereby improving issues of fine tuning.
We study models of gauge mediation with strongly coupled hidden sectors, employing a hard wall background as an holographic dual description. The structure of the soft spectrum depends crucially on the boundary conditions one imposes on bulk fields at the IR wall. Generically, vector and fermion correlators have poles at zero momentum, leading to gauge mediation by massive vector messengers and/or generating Dirac gaugino masses. Instead, non-generic choices of boundary conditions let one cover all of GGM parameter space. Enriching the background with R-symmetry breaking scalars, the SSM soft …
We study gaugino mass generation in the context of semi-direct gauge mediation models, where the messengers are charged under both the hidden sector and the standard model gauge groups while they do not play important roles in dynamical supersymmetry breaking. We clarify the cancellation of the leading contributions of the supersymmetry breaking effects to the gaugino mass in this class of models in terms of the macroscopic effective theory of the hidden sector dynamics. We also consider how to retrofit the model so that we obtain the non-vanishing leading contribution to the gaugino mass.
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 version of Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking which preserves an R-symmetry - the gauginos are Dirac particles, the A-terms are zero, and there are four Higgs doublets. This offers an alternative way for gauginos to acquire mass in the supersymmetry-breaking models of Intriligator, Seiberg, and Shih. We investigate the possibility of using R-symmetric gauge mediation to realize the spectrum and large sfermion mixing of the model of Kribs, Poppitz, and Weiner.
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 propose Singlet Stabilized Minimal Gauge Mediation as a simple ISS-based model of Direct Gauge Mediation which avoids both light gauginos and Landau poles. The hidden sector is a massive s-confining SQCD that is distinguished by a minimal SU(5) flavor group. The uplifted vacuum is stabilized by coupling the meson to an additional singlet sector with its own U(1) gauge symmetry via non-renormalizable interactions suppressed by a higher scale Lambda_UV in the electric theory. This generates a nonzero VEV for the singlet meson via the inverted hierarchy mechanism, but requires tuning to a prec…
We extend the formulation by Meade, Seiberg and Shih of general gauge mediation of supersymmetry breaking to include Dirac masses for the gauginos. These appear through mixing of the visible sector gauginos with additional states in adjoint representations. We illustrate the method by reproducing the existing results in the literature for the gaugino and sfermion masses when preserving R-symmetry. We then explain how the generation of same sign masses for the two propagating degrees of freedom in the adjoint scalars can be achieved. We end by commenting on the use of the formalism for describi…
Supersymmetry breaking in a metastable vacuum allows one to build simple and concrete models of gauge mediation. Generation of gaugino masses requires that R-symmetry be broken in this vacuum. In general, there are two possible ways to break R-symmetry, explicitly or spontaneously. We find that the MSSM phenomenology depends crucially on how this breaking occurs in the Hidden Sector. Explicit R-symmetry breaking models can lead to fairly standard gauge mediation, but we argue that in the context of ISS-type models this only makes sense if B=0 at the mediation scale, which leads to high tan(bet…
In an attempt to maximize General Gauge Mediated parameter space, I propose simple models in which gauginos and scalars are generated from disconnected mechanisms. In my models Dirac gauginos are generated through the supersoft mechanism, while independent R-symmetric scalar masses are generated through operators involving non-zero messenger supertrace. I propose several new methods for generating negative messenger supertraces which result in viable positive mass squareds for MSSM scalars. The resultant spectra are novel, compressed and may contain light fermionic SM adjoint fields.
