In anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking (AMSB) models, superpartner masses are proportional to couplings squared. Their hidden sectors therefore naturally contain WIMPless dark matter, particles whose thermal relic abundance is guaranteed to be of the correct size, even though they are not weakly-interacting massive particles (WIMPs). We study viable dark matter candidates in WIMPless AMSB models with non-Abelian hidden sectors and highlight unusual possibilities that emerge in even the simplest models. In one example with a pure SU(N) hidden sector, stable hidden gluinos freeze out with the correct relic density, but have an extremely low, but natural, confinement scale, providing a framework for self-interacting dark matter. In another simple scenario, hidden gluinos freeze out and decay to visible Winos with the correct relic density, and hidden glueballs may either be stable, providing a natural framework for mixed cold-hot dark matter, or may decay, yielding astrophysical signals. Last, we present a model with light hidden pions that may be tested with improved constraints on the number of non-relativistic degrees of freedom. All of these scenarios are defined by a small number of parameters, are consistent with gauge coupling unification, preserve the beautiful connection between the weak scale and the observed dark matter relic density, and are natural, with relatively light visible superpartners. We conclude with comments on interesting future directions.
In anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking, superpartners in a hidden sector have masses that are proportional to couplings squared, and so naturally freeze out with the desired dark matter relic density for a large range of masses. We present an extremely simple realization of this possibility, with WIMPless dark matter arising from a hidden sector that is supersymmetric QED with N_F flavors. Dark matter is multi-component, composed of hidden leptons and sleptons with masses anywhere from 10 GeV to 10 TeV, and hidden photons provide the thermal bath. The dark matter self-interacts through hid…
We describe the scenario of WIMPless dark matter. In this scenario of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking, a dark matter candidate in the hidden sector is found to naturally have approximately the right relic density to explain astronomical dark matter observations, but with a wide range of possible masses.
We propose that dark matter is composed of particles that naturally have the correct thermal relic density, but have neither weak-scale masses nor weak interactions. These WIMPless models emerge naturally from gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking, where they elegantly solve the dark matter problem. The framework accommodates single or multiple component dark matter, dark matter masses from 10 MeV to 10 TeV, and interaction strengths from gravitational to strong. These candidates enhance many direct and indirect signals relative to WIMPs and have qualitatively new implications for dark matter …
We present a model with dark matter in an anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking hidden sector with a U(1)xU(1) gauge symmetry. The symmetries of the model stabilize the dark matter and forbid the introduction of new mass parameters. As a result, the thermal relic density is completely determined by the gravitino mass and dimensionless couplings. Assuming non-hierarchical couplings, the thermal relic density is ~ 0.1, independent of the dark matter's mass and interaction strength, realizing the WIMPless miracle. The model has several striking features. For particle physics, stability of the d…
I present a realistic model of dynamical supersymmetry breaking, in which a $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge interaction communicates supersymmetry breaking to the standard fields. A distinctive superpartner spectrum is predicted in this model.
We discuss the possibility of finding scenarios, within type IIB string theory compactified on Calabi-Yau orientifolds with fluxes, for realizing gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking. We find that while in principle such scenarios are not ruled out, in practice it is hard to get acceptable constructions, since typically, supersymmetry breaking cannot be separated from the stabilization of the light modulus.
In this thesis we focus on the construction of models in which a supersymmetry breaking hidden sector is located on one fixed point of an extra dimensional interval and the effects are gauge mediated across this interval to the other fixed point where the supersymmetric standard model is located. We use the formalism of current correlators to encode supersymmetry breaking effects and explore flat, warped and deconstructed extra dimensions. We also apply these techniques to models of metastable supersymmetry breaking in N = 1 Supersymmetric Quantum Chromodynamics.
We consider the idea of combining the supersymmetry breaking and messenger sectors in models of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. We discuss the advantages and problems of such models, and present an existence proof by constructing an explicit example. We explore in some detail the low-energy supersymmetry-breaking dynamics and the generation of supersymmetry-breaking soft masses of the standard model superpartners, and discuss many features which are likely to be shared by more realistic models with dynamical messengers.
The effects of heavy mass thresholds on anomaly-mediated soft supersymmetry breaking terms are discussed. While heavy thresholds completely decouple to lowest order in the supersymmetry breaking, it is argued that they do affect the breaking terms at higher orders. The relevant contributions typically occur at lower order in the loop expansion compared to purely anomaly mediated contributions. The non decoupling contributions may be used to render models in which the only source of supersymmetry breaking is anomaly mediation viable, by generating positive contributions to the sleptons' masses …
In this thesis, we study the details of some fundamental cosmological problems of the gauge mediated supersymmetry breakdown and we probe the supersymmetry breaking sector by cosmological arguments. We manifest that problems like the metastable vacuum selection and the gravitino overproduction in the reheated early universe are naturally absent in the most general class of gauge mediation models without including additional ingredients or assumptions. We also find that the gravitino can generically account for the bulk dark matter of the universe. Cosmological implications of a stringy UV-comp…
We show that supersymmetry breaking in a class of theories with SU(N) x SU(N-2) gauge symmetry can be studied in a calculable sigma model. We use the sigma model to show that the supersymmetry breaking vacuum in these theories leaves a large subgroup of flavor symmetries intact, and to calculate the masses of the low-lying states. By embedding the Standard Model gauge groups in the unbroken flavor symmetry group we construct a class of models in which supersymmetry breaking is communicated by both gravitational and gauge interactions. One distinguishing feature of these models is that the mess…
We describe local Calabi-Yau geometries with two isolated singularities at which systems of D3- and D7-branes are located, leading to chiral sectors corresponding to a semi-realistic visible sector and a hidden sector with dynamical supersymmetry breaking. We provide explicit models with a 3-family MSSM-like visible sector, and a hidden sector breaking supersymmetry at a meta-stable minimum. For singularities separated by a distance smaller than the string scale, this construction leads to a simple realization of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking in string theory. The models are simple eno…
We investigate the communication of supersymmetry breaking to the Standard Model in theories of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking with general weakly coupled messenger sectors. We calculate the one loop gaugino and two loop soft scalar masses for nonvanishing Str M^2 of the messenger sector. The soft scalar masses are sensitive to physics at scales higher than the messenger scale, in contrast to models with vanishing messenger supertrace. We discuss the implications of this ultraviolet sensitivity in theories with renormalizable and nonrenormalizable supersymmetry breaking sectors. We note…
We examine gauge and Yukawa coupling unification in models with gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. We work consistently to two-loop order, and include all weak, messenger and unification-scale threshold corrections. We find that successful unification requires unification-scale threshold corrections that are in conflict with the minimal SU(5) model, but are consistent with the modified missing doublet SU(5) model for small tan beta, and large tan beta with mu>0.
Theories with gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking provide an interesting alternative to the scenario in which the soft terms of the low-energy fields are induced by gravity. These theories allow for a natural suppression of flavour violations in the supersymmetric sector and have very distinctive phenomenological features. Here we review their basic structure, their experimental implications, and the attempts to embed them into models in which all mass scales are dynamically generated from a single fundamental scale.
We suggest SU(5)$'$ in the hidden sector toward a possible gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking scenario for removing the SUSY flavor problem, with an example constructed in $\Z_{12-I}$ with three families. The example we present has the Pati-Salam type classification of particles in the observable sector and has no exotics at low energy. We point out that six or seven very light pairs of ${\bf 5}'$ and $\bar{\bf 5}'$ out of ten vectorlike $\five'$ and $\fiveb'$ pairs of SU(5)$'$ is achievable, leading to a possibility of an unstable supersymmetry breaking vacuum. The possibility of different…
New solutions in supersymmetry breaking through gravity mediation have been recently discovered. Such solutions have interesting properties regarding renormalisation and introduce new contributions in the scalar potential that may help to resolve some issues of the Standard Model. The purpose of this article is to investigate the consequences of these new structures. We construct a model related to these new solutions, the S2MSSM, and present some preliminary results on the effects of these new contributions, especially on the Standard Model's Higgs boson mass.
We study the U(1)_R-mediated supersymmetry breaking in a flux compactification of 6D chiral gauged supergravity with codimension-two branes. We consider a concrete model with manifest U(1)_R invariance for moduli stabilization and visible sector in the context of 4D effective supergravity with gauged U(1)_R and determine soft scalar masses in the visible sector mainly by a nonzero U(1)_R D-term. We obtain a low energy superparticle spectrum and discuss on the implications of the obtained non-universal scalar soft masses on the SUSY phenomenology such as dark matter relic abundances.
We discuss realization of cosmic inflation in the $ν$-gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking scenario, in which a set of 24-dimensional chiral superfields responsible for the type III seesaw mechanism play the role of the messenger fields in gauge mediation. Using the data from neutrino oscillations, we show that the model satisfies constraints from the lepton flavor violation, perturbativity of the unified gauge couplings, the observed abundance of dark matter as well as the Higgs mass of 125.1 GeV. The predicted spectrum of the cosmic microwave background radiation fits well with the observat…
We propose a simple class of nonrenormalizable models of gauge mediated dynamical supersymmetry breaking. The models do not have gauge singlet fields. The Standard Model gauge group is embedded in the global symmetry of the SUSY breaking sector. At the renormalizable level the models possess a set of classical flat directions. Only one of those flat directions is unlifted by quantum effects, and requires nonrenormalizable term to stabilize the potential for the corresponding modulus. Large vacuum expectation value of this modulus at the minimum of the potential generates mass terms for the mes…
We analyze simple models of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking in the context of supergravity. We distinguish two cases. One is when the messenger of the supersymmetry breaking is a non Abelian gauge force and the other is when the messenger is a pseudoanomalous U(1). We assume that these models originate from string theory and we impose the constraint of the vanishing of the cosmological constant requiring also the stabilization of the dilaton. In the first case, we do not find vacua that are consistent with the constraints of gauge mediation and have a zero tree level cosmological constan…
We point out that a sector required to set the cosmological constant to zero in gauge-mediated supersymmetry-breaking models naturally produces a supersymmetry-invariant mass ($μ$ term) for Higgs doublets of the order of the electroweak scale. Since this new sector preserves the supersymmetry, it does not generate supersymmetry-breaking masses for the Higgs doublets and thus the $μ$ problem is solved.
Diagnostic signals of the minimal model of anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking are discussed in the context of a $\sqrt{s}$ = 1 TeV $e^+e^-$ linear collider.
We propose a mechanism for mediating supersymmetry breaking in Type I string constructions. The basic set-up consists of a system of three D-branes: two parallel D-branes, a matter D-brane and a source D-brane, with supersymmetry breaking communicated via a third D-brane, the mediating D-brane, which intersects both of the parallel D-branes. We discuss an example in which the first and second family matter fields correspond to open strings living on the intersection of the matter D-brane and mediating D-brane, while the gauge fields, Higgs doublets and third family matter fields correspond to …
We study the transmission of supersymmetry breaking via gravitational interactions in a five-dimensional brane-world compactified on $S^1/Z_2$. We assume that chiral matter and gauge fields are confined at the orbifold fixed points, where supersymmetry is spontaneously broken by effective brane superpotentials. Using an off-shell supergravity multiplet we integrate out the auxiliary fields and examine the couplings between the bulk supergravity fields and boundary matter fields. The corresponding tree-level shift in the bulk gravitino mass spectrum induces one-loop radiative masses for the bou…
We explore two distinct resolutions to the tachyonic slepton puzzle in the Anomaly Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking scenario. Both are based on extending the MSSM by an anomaly free U(1) symmetry, and in both cases exact RG invariance is preserved.
We show the usefulness of an $e^-γ$ collider with backscattered laser photons in unveiling the signatures of Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking models, with a right selectron as the next LSP. We also show how the signal can be distinguished from the Standard Model background as well as from signals of minimal supersymmetry.
We study in detail the particle spectrum in anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking models in which supersymmetry breaking terms are induced by the super-Weyl anomaly. We investigate the minimal anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking models, gaugino assisted supersymmetry breaking models, as well as models with additional residual nondecoupling D-term contributions due to an extra U(1) gauge symmetry at a high energy scale. We derive sum rules for the sparticle masses in these models which can help in differentiating between them. We also obtain the sparticle spectrum numerically, and compare…
Recently, it has been demonstrated that radion mediated supersymmetry breaking gives the same spectrum as Scherk-Schwarz supersymmetry breaking, and can be interpreted as a dynamical realization of it. We make this connection explicit by exhibiting the direct transformation from one theory to the other. We then use the extreme UV softness of Scherk-Schwarz theories to calculate the one-loop soft masses of matter fields. We do not find any cutoff sensitive ``Kaluza-Klein mediated'' contributions.
We introduce new mechanisms for the communication of supersymmetry breaking via gauge interactions. These models do not require complicated dynamics to induce a nonvanishing F term for a singlet. The first class of models communicates supersymmetry breaking to the visible sector through a ``mediator" field that transforms under both a messenger gauge group of the dynamical supersymmetry breaking sector and the standard model gauge group. This model has distinctive phenomenology; in particular, the scalar superpartners should be heavier by at least an order of magnitude than the gaugino superpa…
Recent progress in the gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking is reviewed, with emphasis on the theoretical problems which gauge-mediated models so successfully solve, as well as those problems which are endemic to the models themselves and still beguile theorists today.
We study the novel features in a model with Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking. If the messenger fields have positive R-parity, there will be new sources of flavor violations. We show that the dimension-5 operators will be quite important. When dressing these operators by wino-loops, the constraints on them by the present data are given.
We study the signatures of minimal anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking in an e^- gamma collider. We demonstrate that the associated production of a sneutrino with the lightest chargino leads to a substantially large signal size. The background is negligibly small, though. Even more interestingly, a measurement of the fundamental supersymmetry breaking parameters could be possible.
We consider constraints on gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking models imposed by the requirement of grand unification. In particular, we demonstrate several ways to reduce the number of parameters coming from the dynamical supersymmetry breaking sector. One of approaches exploits nonperturbative unification of gauge couplings in multi-messenger models.
We reinterpret anomaly-mediated supersymmetry breaking from a field-theoretic perspective in which superconformal anomalies couple to either the chiral compensator or the $U(1)_R$ vector superfield. As supersymmetry in the hidden sector is spontaneously broken by non-vanishing vacuum expectation values of the chiral compensator F-term and/or the $U(1)_R$ vector superfield D-term, the soft breakdown of supersymmetry emerges in the visible sector. This approach is physically more understandable compared with the conventional approach where the chiral compensator is treated on the same footing as…
We consider the proton decay involving a light gravitino or axino in gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking models to derive constraints on the $R$ parity and baryon number violating Yukawa couplings. Bounds on all nine coupling constants are obtained by considering the decay amplitudes at one-loop order.
By considering the constraints from nucleon decay we obtain upper limits on tan beta in generalized supersymmetric SU(5) grand unified theories with gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. We find that the predicted values of tan beta in these models are mostly inconsistent with the constraints from nucleon decay.
We discuss gauge-mediated models which employ a tree-level mass term in the superpotential. We give explicit composite realizations in which the mass terms are not fundamental. Instead, they arise as effective terms in the superpotential from confining gauge dynamics.
We consider a class of models in which supersymmetry breaking is communicated dominantly via a U'(1) gauge interaction, which also helps solve the μproblem. 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' ~ 10-100 TeV; light gauginos ~ 100-1000 GeV; a light Higgs ~ 140 GeV; and a light singlino. A specific set of U'(1) charges and exotics is analyzed, and we present five benchmark models. Implications for the gluino lifetime, cold dark matter, and the gravitino and neutrino ma…
We point out that, in a class of gauge mediation models using metastable supersymmetry breaking vacua, the minimum of the supersymmetry breaking field in the early universe is dynamically deviated from the one in the low energy. The deviation induces coherent oscillations of the supersymmetry breaking field, which decays into the gravitinos. For certain parameters, it can produce a right amount of the gravitinos to account for the observed dark matter.
We explore, in the MSSM context, an extension of the Anomaly Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking solution for the soft scalar masses that is possible if the underlying theory has a gauged R-symmetry. The slepton mass problem characteristic of the scenario is resolved, and a context for the explanation of the fermion mass hierarchy provided.
The question of naturalness is addressed in the context of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking models. Requiring that $M_Z$ arises naturally imposes upper limits on the right-handed selectron mass in these models that are stronger than in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and are interesting from the point of view of searches at the current and future colliders.
The R-parity non-conservation phenomenology within the minimal supersymmetric standard model with gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking has been studied. New constraints on the lepton number violating constant $λ_{111}^\prime$ were imposed by non-observability of the neutrinoless double beta decay. We find that $λ_{111}^\prime$ depends strongly on the effective supersymmetry breaking scale $Λ$ only and deduce limits which are much stronger than those previously found in literature.
Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking has all the necessary ingredients for a successful sub-eV Hubble scale inflation $H_{\rm inf} \sim 10^{-3}-10^{-1}$ eV. The model generates the right amplitude for scalar density perturbations and a spectral tilt within the range, $0.90 \leq n_s \leq 1$. The reheat temperature is $T_{\rm R} \ls 10$ TeV, which strongly prefers electroweak baryogenesis and creates the right abundance of gravitinos with a mass $m_{3/2} \gs 100$ keV to be the dark matter.
We study gauge-mediated theories containing several messengers with the most general SU(5)-invariant mass and supersymmetry-breaking parameters. We show that these theories are predictive, containing only two relevant parameters more than the minimal gauge-mediated model. Hypercharge D-terms can contribute significantly to the right-handed charged sleptons and bring them closer in mass to the left-handed sleptons. The messenger masses must be invariant under either SU(5) or a ``messenger parity" to avoid spontaneous breaking of charge conservation.
We present a detailed analysis of how a mixed-anomaly-free U(1) symmetry can be used to both resolve the slepton mass problem associated with Anomaly Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking and generate the fermion mass hierarchy via the Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism. Flavour changing neutral currents problems are evaded by a specific form of the Yukawa textures.
In Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) from orbifold and various string constructions the generic vector-like particles do not need to form complete SU(5) or SO(10) representations. To realize them concretely, we present orbifold SU(5) models, orbifold SO(10) models where the gauge symmetry can be broken down to flipped SU(5) X U(1)_X or Pati-Salam SU(4)_C X SU(2)_L X SU(2)_R gauge symmetries, and F-theory SU(5) models. Interestingly, these vector-like particles can be at the TeV-scale so that the lightest CP-even Higgs boson mass can be lifted, or play the messenger fields in the Gauge Mediated Sup…
The messenger sector of existing models of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking may be simplified by using a non-renormalizable superpotential term to couple the vector-like quark and lepton messenger fields to a chiral gauge-invariant of the supersymmetry-breaking sector. This eliminates the need for a fundamental singlet and for an additional gauge sector needed to generate appropriate expectation values for the singlet component fields. This scenario is more natural if the supersymmetry-breaking sector itself involves a non-renormalizable superpotential. Several examples are constructed ba…
We point out that in supersymmetric theories with extra dimensions, radius stabilization can give rise to a VEV for the $F$ component of the radius modulus. This gives an important contribution to supersymmetry breaking of fields that propagate in the bulk. A particularly attractive class of models is obtained if the standard-model gauge fields propagate in the bulk, while the quark and lepton fields are localized on a brane. This leads to gaugino mediated supersymmetry breaking without the need for singlets in the hidden sector. We analyze a simple explicit model in which this idea is realize…
We investigate effects of D-term contributions to the mixed modulus-anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking scenario. In the original scenario, the tachyonic slepton problem in the pure anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking is cured by modulus contributions. We generalize the scenario so as to include contributions from the D-terms of U(1)_Y and the gauged U(1)_{B-L} which is motivated in a grand unified theory based on a higher rank gauge group such as SO(10). As a consequence of additional $D$-term contributions to scalar masses, we obtain various soft supersymmetry breaking mass spectra, …
A simple hadronic axion model is proposed in the framework of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. Dynamics of Peccei-Quinn symmetry breaking is governed by supersymmetry breaking effects and the Peccei-Quinn breaking scale $f_{PQ}$ is inversely proportional to the gravitino mass. The gravitino mass range which corresponds to the axion window $f_{PQ} \simeq 10^{9}$ GeV -- $10^{13}$ GeV lies in the region predicted by gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking models. The model is also shown to be cosmologically viable.
The general form of soft supersymmetry breaking terms at one loop for effective supergravity models based on the weakly-coupled heterotic string are presented, with special emphasis on those terms arising from the superconformal anomaly. The standard "anomaly-mediated" soft terms are observed to be a special case of a more general class of models. Some phenomenological consequences are considered and a comparison is made with scenarios involving universal soft terms.
We consider the branching ratio of $b \to sγ$ in gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking theories. Useful bounds on the parameter space of these models are derived from the experimental bounds on $b \to sγ$. Constraints on masses of NLSP are presented as a function of $tanβ$ and $M/Λ$ for $μ<0$ and $μ>0$.
Moduli are generic in string (M) theory. In a large class of gauge-mediated Supersymmetry breaking models, the fermionic components of such fields have very light masses, around the eV scale, and non-negligible mixing with active neutrinos, of order $10^{-4}$. Consequently, these fermions could play the role of sterile neutrinos to which active neutrinos oscillate, thus affecting measurements of solar neutrinos or of atmospheric neutrinos. They could also provide warm dark matter, thus affecting structure formation.
We provide a simple solution to the $μ/B_μ$ problem in the gauge-mediated Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. In this model the messenger sector contains one pair of $3+\bar 3$ and one pair of $2+\bar 2$ messengers. These two messenger pairs couple to different gauge singlets in the hidden sector in which supersymmetry (SUSY) is broken. Such a gauge-mediation structure can naturally arise in many backgrounds. Because of the two effective SUSY breaking scales $\frac{< F_i>}{< M_i>}$ in the messenger sector, the renormalization group evolutions of the soft SUSY breaking parameters can…
We show that in a minimal extension of the MSSM by means of an extra U(1) gauge group, the negative mass-squared problem characteristic of the Anomaly Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking scenario is naturally solved by means of Fayet-Iliopoulos D-terms. We derive a set of sum rules for the sparticle masses which are consequences of the resulting framework.
A supersymmetric model which naturally accommodates MeV tau neutrino within the framework of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking is described. The lepton number violation is originally introduced in the messenger sector of the theory. A large slepton-Higgs mixing mass and a small lepton-higgsino mixing mass are generated at one-loop. Scalar tau neutrino has non-vanishing vacuum expectation value. These result in a non-zero ν_τ mass which is in the range of (1-10) MeV.
Using the facts that in Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking schemes, masses of the right and the left sfermions can differ widely, and the gravitino is the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle, we show that it is possible to obtain unambiguous signatures of such schemes in a high energy $e^+e^-$ collider if one looks at the asymmetries in the cross-sections for certain final states with left-and right-polarized beams.
