We consider models with a noncompact symmetry in the framework of $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetry. Contrary to the conventional approach, the noncompact symmetry is realized linearly on all fields without constraints. The models are constructed using noncanonical Kähler function and gauge kinetic function, which is introduced for the local case. It is explained that the symmetry needs to be spontaneously broken for the consistency of a model. We study the vacuum structures of two models with the noncompact symmetry SU(1,1) for both global and local cases. One of them includes two fundamental representations of the group and the other includes one adjoint representation. It is shown that the former is consistent for the global case and the latter is consistent for both the global and local cases.
It is known in previous literature that if a Wess-Zumino model with an R-symmetry gives a supersymmetric vacuum, the superpotential vanishes at the vacuum. In this work, we establish a formal notion of genericity, and show that if the R-symmetric superpotential has generic coefficients, the superpotential vanishes term-by-term at a supersymmetric vacuum. This result constrains the form of the superpotential which leads to a supersymmetric vacuum. It may contribute to a refined classification of R-symmetric Wess-Zumino models, and find applications in string constructions of vacua with small su…
Based on a talk given at the Pomeranchuk memorial conference at ITEP in June 2013, we review the vacuum dynamics in 3d supersymmetric Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons theories with and without extra matter multiplets. By analyzing the effective Born-Oppenheimer Hamiltonian in a small spatial box, we calculate the number of vacuum states (Witten index) and examine their structure for these theories. The results are identical to those obtained by other methods.
It has been suggested recently that in a consistent theory any Minkowski vacuum must be exactly stable. As a result, a large class of theories that in ordinary treatment would appear sufficiently long-lived, in reality make no sense. In particular, this applies to supersymmetric models in which global supersymmetry is broken in a false vacuum. We show that in any such theory the dynamics of supersymmetry breaking cannot be decoupled from the Planck scale physics. This finding poses an obvious challenge for the idea of low-scale metastable (for example gauge) mediation.
A minimal supersymmetric brane-world model is presented which has: i) zero classical four-dimensional vacuum curvature, despite the large naive vacuum energy due to contributions from Standard Model particles; ii) one-(bulk)-loop quantum corrections to the vacuum energy with a size set by the radius of the extra-dimensional spheroid. These corrections are technically natural because a BPS-like relation between the brane tension and R-charge---which would have preserved (half of) the bulk supersymmetry---is violated by the requirement that the stabilizing R-symmetry gauge flux be quantized. The…
We study the stability of supersymmetry breaking vacuum in the presence of cosmic strings arising in the messenger sector. For certain ranges of the couplings, the desired supersymmetry breaking vacua become unstable against decay into phenomenologically unacceptable vacua. This sets constraints on the range of allowed values of the coupling constants appearing in the models and more generally on the chosen dynamics of gauge symmetry breaking.
We determine the vacuum structure and phases of N=1 theories obtained via a mass μfor the adjoint chiral superfield in N=2, SO(n_c) SQCD. For large number of flavors these theories have two groups of vacua. The first exhibits dynamical breaking of flavor symmetry \USp(2n_f) \to U(n_f) and arises as a relevant deformation of a non-trivial superconformal theory. These are in the confined phase. The second group, in an IR-free phase with unbroken flavor symmetry, is produced from a Coulomb branch singularity with Seiberg's dual gauge symmetry. In the large-μregime both groups of vacua are well-de…
By computing the two-loop effective potential of the D=3 N=1 supersymmetric Chern-Simons model minimally coupled to a massless self-interacting matter superfield, it is shown that supersymmetry is preserved, while the internal U(1) and the scale symmetries are broken at two-loop order, dynamically generating masses both for the gauge superfield and for the real component of the matter superfield.
We study a supersymmetric model in curved background spacetime. We calculate the effective action and the vacuum expectation value of the energy momentum tensor using a covariant regularization procedure. A soft supersymmetry breaking induces a nonzero contribution to the vacuum energy density and pressure. Assuming the presence of a cosmic fluid in addition to the vacuum fluctuations of the supersymmetric field an effective equation of state is derived in a self-consistent approach at one loop order. The net effect of the vacuum fluctuations of the supersymmetric fields in the leading adiabat…
We verify a method which allows to obtain the $β$-function of supersymmetric theories regularized by higher covariant derivatives by calculating only specially modified vacuum supergraphs. With the help of this method for a general renormalizable ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric gauge theory a part of the three-loop $β$-function depending on the Yukawa couplings is constructed in the general $ξ$-gauge. The result is written in the form of an integral of double total derivatives with respect to the loop momenta. It is demonstrated that all gauge dependent terms cancel each other in agreement with th…
By employing the $1/N$ expansion, we compute the vacuum energy~$E(δε)$ of the two-dimensional supersymmetric (SUSY) $\mathbb{C}P^{N-1}$ model on~$\mathbb{R}\times S^1$ with $\mathbb{Z}_N$ twisted boundary conditions to the second order in a SUSY-breaking parameter~$δε$. This quantity was vigorously studied recently by Fujimori et\ al.\ using a semi-classical approximation based on the bion, motivated by a possible semi-classical picture on the infrared renormalon. In our calculation, we find that the parameter~$δε$ receives renormalization and, after this renormalization, the vacuum energy bec…
We study dynamical supersymmetry breaking in supersymmetric QCD theories for $N_f<N_c$. We consider a model with a singlet chiral superfield coupled to the infrared meson chiral superfield through a classical superpotential. We examine the vacuum structure of this model and show that in a particular limit of the parameter space with the large $N_c$ limit, it has a vacuum that dynamically breaks supersymmetry. The supersymmetric vacuum, in this limit, is being pushed to infinity.
We study a noninteracting supersymmetric model in an expanding FRW spacetime. A soft supersymmetry breaking induces a nonzero contribution to the vacuum energy density. A short distance cutoff of the order of Planck length provides a scale for the vacuum energy density comparable with the observed cosmological constant. Assuming the presence of a dark energy substance in addition to the vacuum fluctuations of the field an effective equation of state is derived in a selfconsistent approach. The effective equation of state is sensitive to the choice of the cut-off but no fine tuning is needed.
The heterotic--string models in the free fermionic formulation gave rise to some of the most realistic string models to date, which possess N=1 spacetime supersymmetry. Lack of evidence for supersymmetry at the LHC instigated recent interest in non-supersymmetric heterotic-string vacua. We explore what may be learned in this context from the quasi--realistic free fermionic models. We show that constructions with a low number of families give rise to proliferation of a priori tachyon producing sectors, compared to the non--realistic examples, which typically may contain only one such sector. Th…
We study supersymmetric (SUSY) models derived from the ten-dimensional SUSY Yang- Mills theory compactified on magnetized orbifolds, with nonvanishing Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms induced by magnetic fluxes in extra dimensions. Allowing the presence of FI-terms relaxes a constraint on flux configurations in SUSY model building based on magnetized backgrounds. In this case, charged fields develop their vacuum expectation values (VEVs) to cancel the FI-terms in the D-flat directions of fluxed gauge symmetries, which break the gauge symmetries and lead to a SUSY vacuum. Based on this idea, we prop…
Among gauged dynamics motivated by string theory, we find many with gapless asymptotic directions. Although the natural boundary condition for ground states is $L^2$, one often turns on chemical potentials or supersymmetric mass terms to regulate the infrared issues, instead, and computes the twisted partition function. We point out how this procedure generically fails to capture physical $L^2$ Witten index with often misleading results. We also explore how, nevertheless, the Witten index is sometimes intricately embedded in such twisted partition functions. For $d=1$ theories with gapless con…
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.
We determine the spectrum of scalar masses in a supersymmetric vacuum of a general N=1 supergravity theory, with the Kahler potential and superpotential taken to be random functions of N complex scalar fields. We derive a random matrix model for the Hessian matrix and compute the eigenvalue spectrum. Tachyons consistent with the Breitenlohner-Freedman bound are generically present, and although these tachyons cannot destabilize the supersymmetric vacuum, they do influence the likelihood of the existence of an `uplift' to a metastable vacuum with positive cosmological constant. We show that the…
The Operator Product Expansion approach to scattering amplitudes in maximally supersymmetric gauge theory operates in terms of pentagon transitions for excitations propagating on a color flux tube. These obey a set of axioms which allow one to determine them to all orders in 't Hooft coupling and confront against explicit calculations. One of the simplifying features of the formalism is the factorizability of multiparticle transitions in terms of single-particle ones. In this paper we extend an earlier consideration of a sector populated by one kind of excitations to the case of a system with …
