We construct a class of matrix models, where supersymmetry (SUSY) is spontaneously broken at the matrix size $N$ infinite. The models are obtained by dimensional reduction of matrix-valued SUSY quantum mechanics. The potential of the models is slowly varying, and the large-$N$ limit is taken with the slowly varying limit.
First, we explain our formalism, introducing an external field to detect spontaneous SUSY breaking, analogously to ordinary (bosonic) symmetry breaking. It is observed that SUSY is possibly broken even in systems in less than one-dimension, for example, discretized quantum mechanics with a finite number of discretized time steps. Then, we consider spontaneous SUSY breaking in the SUSY matrix models with slowly varying potential, where the external field is turned off after the large-$N$ and slowly varying limit, analogously to the thermodynamic limit in statistical systems. On the other hand, without taking the slowly varying limit, in the SUSY matrix model with a double-well potential whose SUSY is broken due to instantons for finite $N$, a number of supersymmetric behavior is explicitly seen at large $N$. It convinces us that the instanton effect disappears and the SUSY gets restored in the large-$N$ limit.
We study non-relativistic supersymmetric field theories in diverse dimensions. The theories consist of scalars and fermions and possess two, four or eight real supercharges. We analyze their spontaneous supersymmetry breaking structure and calculate the gapless spectrum. We calculate the perturbative quantum corrections at the supersymmetric vacua and show that while supersymmetry is preserved, scale invariance is broken and the theories are IR free.
Spontaneous supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking is revealed in all phenomena in which vacuum condensates are physically relevant. The dynamical breakdown of SUSY is generated by the condensates themselves, which lift the zero point energy. Evidence is presented in the case of the Wess-Zuimino model, and the flavor mixing case is treated in detail.
We study the vacuum condensate characterizing many physical phenomena. We show that such a condensate may leads to non-trivial components of the dark energy and of the dark matter and may induces the spontaneous supersymmetry breaking, in a supersymmetric context. In particular, we consider the condensate induced by thermal states, fields in curved space-time and mixed particles.
We propose a novel mechanism of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking which relies upon an ubiquitous feature of Quantum Field Theory, vacuum condensates. Such condensates play a crucial rôle in many phenomena. Examples include Unruh effect, superconductors, particle mixing, and quantum dissipative systems. We argue that in all these phenomena supersymmetry, when present, is spontaneously broken. Evidence for our conjecture is given for the Wess--Zumino model, that can be considered an approximation to the supersymmetric extensions of the above mentioned systems. The magnitude of the effect is es…
I review recent work on computing radiative corrections to non-abelian gauge couplings in four-dimensional heterotic vacua with spontaneously broken supersymmetry. The prototype models can be considered as K3 surfaces with additional Scherk-Schwarz fluxes inducing the spontaneous $\mathcal{N}=2 \to \mathcal{N}=0$ breaking. Remarkably, although the gauge thresholds are no longer BPS protected and receive contributions also from the excitations of the RNS sector, their difference is still exactly computable and universal. Based on a talk presented at the DISCRETE 2014 conference at King's Colleg…
The presence of the Aharonov-Anandan invariant in phenomena in which vacuum condensates are physically relevant can help to reveal the spontaneous supersymmetry breaking induced by condensates. The analysis is presented in the case of the Wess--Zumino model. The manifestation of the Aharonov-Anandan invariant of atoms and their superpartners, generated at non-zero temperature, could reveal the signature of SUSY violation in a recently proposed experimental setup based on an optical lattice in which SUSY is broken at non-zero temperature.
It has been recently argued that inserting a probe anti-D3-brane in a flux background breaks supersymmetry spontaneously instead of explicitly, as previously thought. In this paper we argue that such spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry persists even when the probe anti-D3-brane is kept in a curved background with an internal space that doesn't have to be a Calabi-Yau manifold. To show this we take a specific curved background generated by fractional three-branes and fluxes on a non-Kahler resolved conifold where supersymmetry breaking appears directly from certain world-volume fermions becom…
We examine spontaneously broken N=2 supersymmetry in four dimensions and associate a spinor superfield with each Goldstino via a finite supersymmetry transformation with parameters that are the Grassmann coordinates of N=2 superspace. Making use of a special choice of coset parametrization allows us to develop a version of nonlinearly realized N=2 supersymmetry for which the associated Goldstino superfields are defined on harmonic superspace, thereby providing a natural mechanism for construction of a Goldstino action. The corresponding superfield Lagrangian is an O(4) multiplet. This property…
A possible mechanism for the spontaneous breaking of SUSY, based on the presence of vacuum condensates, is reviewed. Such a mechanism could occur in many physical examples, both at the fundamental and emergent level, and would be formally analogous to spontaneous SUSY breaking at finite temperature in the TFD formalism, in which case it can be applied as well. A possible experimental setup for detecting such a breaking through measurement of the Anandan-Aharonov invariants associated with vacuum condensates in an optical lattice model is proposed.
We show that contrary to the common lore it is possible to spontaneously break N=2 supersymmetry even in simple theories without constant Fayet-Iliopoulos terms. We consider the most general N=2 supersymmetric theory with one hypermultiplet and one vector multiplet without Fayet-Iliopoulos terms, and show that metastable supersymmetry breaking vacua can arise if both the hyper-Kahler and the special-Kahler geometries are suitably curved. We then also prove that while all the scalars can be massive, the lightest one is always lighter than the vector boson. Finally, we argue that these results a…
We analyse a class of four-dimensional heterotic ground states with N=2 space-time supersymmetry. From the ten-dimensional perspective, such models can be viewed as compactifications on a six-dimensional manifold with SU(2) holonomy, which is locally but not globally K3 x T^2. The maximal N=4 supersymmetry is spontaneously broken to N=2. The masses of the two massive gravitinos depend on the (T,U) moduli of T^2. We evaluate the one-loop threshold corrections of gauge and R^2 couplings and we show that they fall in several universality classes, in contrast to what happens in usual K3 x T^2 comp…
Spontaneous breaking of global supersymmetries results in Goldstino fields which provide a nonlinear realisation of the supersymmetry algebra. A finite supersymmetry transformation of a Goldstino field can be used to generate a superfield whose components provide a linear realisation of the supersymmetry algebra. This construction also automatically determines the action of the algebra of supercovariant derivatives on Goldstino superfields, essential to the efficient computation of manifestly supersymmetric component actions for the Goldstinos, including coupling to matter fields. In this pape…
This paper revisits the nonlinear realization of spontaneously broken N=1 supersymmetry. It is shown that the constrained superfield formalism can be reinterpreted in the language of standard realization of nonlinear supersymmetry via a new and simpler route. Explicit formulas of actions are presented for general renormalizable theories with or without gauge interactions. The nonlinear Wess-Zumino gauge is discussed and relations are pointed out for different definitions of gauge fields. In addition, a general procedure is provided to deal with theories of arbitrary Kahler potentials.
Supergravities with gauged R-symmetry and Minkowski vacua allow for spontaneous supersymmetry breaking and, as such, provide a framework for building supergravity models of phenomenological relevance. In this letter we initiate the study of double-copy constructions for these supergravities. We argue that, on general grounds, we expect their scattering amplitudes to be described by a double copy of the type: (Higgsed gauge theory) x (gauge theory with broken SUSY). We present a simple realization in which the resulting supergravity has U(1)_R gauge symmetry, spontaneously-broken N=2 supersymme…
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 Wess--Zumino $\mathcal{N}=1$ supermultiplets and arguments for its general validity are given. The mechanism relies on the fact that, despite mixing treats fermions and bosons symmetrically, both the fermionic and the bosonic zero point energies are shifted by a positive amount and this kind of shift does not respect supersymmetry.
We analyze the spontaneous $U(1)_R$ symmetry breaking at finite temperature for the simple O'Raifeartaigh-type model introduced in [1] in connection with spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. We calculate the finite temperature effective potential (free energy) to one loop order and study the thermal evolution of the model. We find that the R-symmetry breaking occurs through a second order phase transition. Its associated meta-stable supersymmetry breaking vacuum is thermodynamically favored at high temperatures and the model remains trapped in this state by a potential barrier, as the temperatu…
We study the phase diagram of the two-dimensional N=1 Wess-Zumino model on the lattice using Wilson fermions and the fermion loop formulation. We give a complete nonperturbative determination of the ground state structure in the continuum and infinite volume limit. We also present a determination of the particle spectrum in the supersymmetric phase, in the supersymmetry broken phase and across the supersymmetry breaking phase transition. In the supersymmetry broken phase we observe the emergence of the Goldstino particle.
Using the embedding tensor formalism we give the general conditions for the existence of N=1 vacua in spontaneously broken N=2 supergravities. Our results confirm the necessity of having both electrically and magnetically charged multiplets in the spectrum, but also show that no further constraints on the special Kahler geometry of the vector multiplets arise. The quaternionic field space of the hypermultiplets must have two commuting isometries, and as an example we discuss the special quaternionic-Kahler geometries which appear in the low-energy limit of type II string theories. For these ca…
We report on a non-perturbative study of two dimensional $\cN=(2,2)$ super QCD. Our lattice formulation retains a single exact supersymmetry at non-zero lattice spacing, and contains $N_f$ fermions in the fundamental representation of a $U(N_c)$ gauge group. The lattice action we employ contains an additional Fayet-Iliopoulos term which is also invariant under the exact lattice supersymmetry. This work constitutes the first numerical study of this theory which serves as a toy model for understanding some of the issues that are expected to arise in four dimensional super QCD. We present evidenc…
We present a qualitatively new mechanism for dynamical spontaneous breakdown of supersymmetry in supergravity. Specifically, we construct a modified formulation of standard minimal N=1 supergravity as well as of anti-de Sitter supergravity in terms of a non-Riemannian spacetime volume-form (generally covariant integration measure density). The new supergravity formalism naturally triggers the appearance of a dynamically generated cosmological constant as an arbitrary integration constant which signifies spontaneous (dynamical) breaking of supersymmetry. Applying the new formalism to anti-de Si…
We study the compatibility of spontaneous breaking of parity and successful cosmology in a left-right symmetric model where supersymmetry breaking is achieved in metastable vacua. We show that domain walls formed due to this breaking can be removed due to Planck scale suppressed terms, provided the parity breaking scale $M_R$ is constrained to remain smaller than $10^{10}-10^{11}$ GeV. Ensuring metastability is achieved naturally even if the entire mechanism operates at low scales, within a few orders of magnitude of the TeV scale. Taking $M_R$ as high as permitted, close to the acceptable reh…
Unified models incorporating the right handed neutrino in a symmetric way generically possess parity symmetry. If this is broken spontaneously it results in the formation of domain walls in the early Universe, whose persistence is unwanted. A generic mechanism for destabilisation of such walls is a small pressure difference signalled by difference in the free energy across the walls. It is interesting to explore the possibility of such effects in conjunction with the effects that break supersymmetry in a phenomenologically acceptable way. Realising this possibility in the context of several sc…
The supersymmetric Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model proposed by Cheng, Dai, Faisel and Kong is re-analyzed by using an auxiliary superfield method in which a hidden local U(1) symmetry emerges. It is shown that, in the healthy field-space region where no negative metric particles appear, only SUSY preserving vacua can be realized in the weak coupling regime and a composite massive spin-1 supermultiplets appear as a result of spontaneous breaking of the hidden local U(1) symmetry. In the strong coupling regime, on the other hand, SUSY is dynamically broken, but it is always accompanied by negative metr…
