24 pages, 3 figures. Fig. 2 was replaced by a correct one and corresponding descriptions in the text were corrected. A note added. The final version to appear in PTEP
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 becomes ultraviolet finite. To the next-to-leading order of the $1/N$ expansion, we find that the vacuum energy normalized by the radius of the~$S^1$, $R$, $RE(δε)$ behaves as inverse powers of~$ΛR$ for~$ΛR$ small, where $Λ$ is the dynamical scale. Since $Λ$ is related to the renormalized 't~Hooft coupling~$λ_R$ as~$Λ\sim e^{-2π/λ_R}$, to the order of the $1/N$ expansion we work out, the vacuum energy is a purely non-perturbative quantity and has no well-defined weak coupling expansion in~$λ_R$.
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.
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…
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 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 rep…
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.
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 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.
We study duality in $\mathcal{N}=1$ supersymmetric QCD in the non-Abelian Coulomb phase, order-by-order in scheme-independent series expansions. Using exact results, we show how the dimensions of various fundamental and composite chiral superfields, and the quantities $a$, $a/c$, and $b$ at superconformal fixed points of the renormalization group emerge in scheme-independent series expansions in the electric and magnetic theories. We further demonstrate that truncations of these series expansions to modest order yield very accurate approximations to these quantities.
The renormalization group relations for the higher-order hadronic vacuum polarization function perturbative expansion coefficients are studied. The folded recurrent and unfolded explicit forms of such relations are obtained. The explicit expression for the coefficients, which incorporate the contributions of the $π^{2}$-terms in the perturbative expansion of the R-ratio of electron-positron annihilation into hadrons, is derived at an arbitrary loop level. The obtained results can be employed as an independent crosscheck of the higher-order perturbative calculations of the hadronic vacuum polar…
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…
I discuss similarities and differences between the resurgence program in quantum mechanics and the operator product expansion in strongly coupled Yang-Mills theories. In ${\mathcal N}=1$ super-Yang-Mills renormalons possess peculiar features that make them different from renormalons in QCD. Their conventional QCD interpretation does not seem to be applicable in supersymmetric Yang-Mills in a straightforward manner.
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.
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 confirm the convergence of the derivative expansion in two supersymmetric models via the functional renormalization group method. Using pseudo-spectral methods, high-accuracy results for the lowest energies in supersymmetric quantum mechanics and a detailed description of the supersymmetric analogue of the Wilson-Fisher fixed point of the three-dimensional Wess-Zumino model are obtained. The superscaling relation proposed earlier, relating the relevant critical exponent to the anomalous dimension, is shown to be valid to all orders in the supercovariant derivative expansion and for all $d \…
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…
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…
We investigate in detail solutions of supergravity that involve warped products of flat geometries of the type M(p+1) x R x T(D-p-2) depending on a single coordinate. In the absence of fluxes, the solutions include flat space and Kasner-like vacua that break all supersymmetries. In the presence of a symmetric flux, there are three families of solutions that are characterized by a pair of boundaries and have a singularity at one of them, the origin. The first family comprises supersymmetric vacua, which capture a universal limiting behavior at the origin. The first and second families also cont…
We study supersymmetric inhomogeneous field theories in 1+1 dimensions which have explicit coordinate dependence. Although translation symmetry is broken, part of supersymmetries can be maintained. In this paper, we consider the simplest inhomogeneous theories with one real scalar field, which possess an unbroken supersymmetry. The energy is bounded from below by the topological charge which is not necessarily nonnegative definite. The bound is saturated if the first-order Bogomolny equation is satisfied. Non-constant static supersymmetric solutions above the vacuum involve in general a zero m…
