String theory has no parameter except the string scale $M_S$, so the Planck scale $M_\text{Pl}$, the supersymmetry-breaking scale, the EW scale $m_\text{EW}$ as well as the vacuum energy density (cosmological constant) $Λ$ are to be determined dynamically at any local minimum solution in the string theory landscape. Here we consider a model that links the supersymmetric electroweak phenomenology (bottom up) to the string theory motivated flux compactification approach (top down). In this model, supersymmetry is broken by a combination of the racetrack Kähler uplift mechanism, which naturally allows an exponentially small positive $Λ$ in a local minimum, and the anti-D3-brane in the KKLT scenario. In the absence of the Higgs doublets in the supersymmetric standard model, one has either a small $Λ$ or a big enough SUSY-breaking scale, but not both. The introduction of the Higgs fields (with their soft terms) allows a small $Λ$ and a big enough SUSY-breaking scale simultaneously. Since an exponentially small $Λ$ is statistically preferred (as the properly normalized probability distribution $P(Λ)$ diverges at $Λ=0^{+}$), identifying the observed $Λ_{\rm obs}$ to the median value $Λ_{50\%}$ yields $m_{\rm EW} \sim 100$ GeV. We also find that the warped anti-D3-brane tension has a SUSY-breaking scale of $100m_{\rm EW}$ in the landscape while the SUSY-breaking scale that directly correlates with the Higgs fields in the visible sector has a value of $m_{\rm EW}$.
Many models for dynamical supersymmetry breaking have the domain wall solution of the Kovner-Shifman type and therefore contain the potential cosmological domain wall problem.We show that the degeneracy of the vacua is lifted in any model in which the cosmological constant is fine-tuned to zero through an explicit $Z_{n}^{R}$ symmetry breaking constant in the superpotential. In this respect, we do not have to add unnatural non-renormalizable terms which explicitly break the symmetry. We also discuss the conditions for the safe decay of the walls for several concrete examples.
We construct non-supersymmetric type I string models which correspond to consistent flat-space solutions of all classical equations of motion. Moreover, the one-loop vacuum energy is naturally fixed by the size of compact extra dimensions which, in the two-dimensional case, can be lowered to a fraction of a millimetre. This class of models has interesting non-abelian gauge groups and can accommodate chiral fermions. In the large radius limit, supersymmetry is recovered in the bulk, while D-brane excitations, although non-supersymmetric, exhibit Fermi-Bose degeneracy at all mass levels. We also…
This article briefly summarizes and reviews the motivations for - and the present status of - the proposal that the small size of the observed Dark Energy density can be understood in terms of the dynamical relaxation of two large extra dimensions within a supersymmetric higher-dimensional theory.
We study the probability distribution P(Λ) of the cosmological constant Λin a specific set of KKLT type models of supersymmetric IIB vacua. We show that, as we sweep through the quantized flux values in this flux compactification, P(Λ) behaves divergent at Λ=0^- and the median magnitude of Λdrops exponentially as the number of complex structure moduli h^{2,1} increases. Also, owing to the hierarchical and approximate no-scale structure, the probability of having a positive Hessian (mass squared matrix) approaches unity as h^{2,1} increases.
An alternative way of introducing the supersymmetric cosmological term in a supergravity theory is presented. We show that the $AdS$-Lorentz superalgebra allows to construct a geometrical formulation of supergravity containing a generalized supersymmetric cosmological constant. The $N=1$, $D=4$ supergravity action is built only from the curvatures of the $AdS$-Lorentz superalgebra and corresponds to a MacDowell-Mansouri like action. The extension to a generalized $AdS$-Lorentz superalgebra is also analyzed.
Based on the studies in Type IIB string theory phenomenology, we conjecture that a good fraction of the meta-stable de Sitter vacua in the cosmic stringy landscape tend to have a very small cosmological constant $Λ$ when compared to either the string scale $M_S$ or the Planck scale $M_P$, i.e., $Λ\ll M_S^4 \ll M_P^4$. These low lying de Sitter vacua tend to be accompanied by very light scalar bosons/axions. Here we illustrate this phenomenon with the bosonic mass spectra in a set of Type IIB string theory flux compactification models. We conjecture that small $Λ$ with light bosons is generic a…
Following Kachru, Kumar and Silverstein, we construct a set of non-supersymmetric Type II string models which have equal numbers of bosons and fermions at each mass level. The models are asymmetric {\bf Z}_2 \otimes {\bf Z}_2^{\prime} orbifolds. We demonstrate that this bose-fermi degeneracy feature implies that both the one-loop and the two-loop contributions to the cosmological constant vanish. We conjecture that the cosmological constant actually vanishes to all loops. We construct a strong-weak dual pair of models, both of which have bose-fermi degeneracy. This implies that at least some o…
In flat space, the extreme Reissner-Nordstrøm (RN) black hole is distinguished by its coldness (vanishing Hawking temperature) and its supersymmetry. We examine RN solutions to Einstein-Maxwell theory with a cosmological constant $Λ$, classifying the cold black holes and, for positive $Λ$, the ``lukewarm" black holes at the same temperature as the de Sitter thermal background. For negative $Λ$, we classify the supersymmetric solutions within the context of $N=2$ gauged supergravity. One finds supersymmetric analogues of flat-space extreme RN black holes, which for nonzero $Λ$ differ from the c…
We investigate the attractor mechanism for spherically symmetric extremal black holes in Einstein-Born-Infeld-dilaton theory of gravity in four-dimensions, in the presence of a cosmological constant. We look for solutions analytic near the horizon by using perturbation method. It is shown that the values of the scalar fields at the horizon are only dependent on the charges carried by the black hole and are irrelevant in their asymptotic values. This analysis supports the validity of non-supersymmetric attractors in the presence of higher derivative interactions in the gauge fields part and in …
We study type II string vacua defined by torus compactifications accompanied by T-duality twists. We realize the string vacua, specifically, by means of the asymmetric orbifolding associated to the chiral reflections combined with a shift, which are interpreted as describing the compactification on `T-folds'. We discuss possible consistent actions of the chiral reflection on the Ramond-sector of the world-sheet fermions, and explicitly construct non-supersymmetric as well as supersymmetric vacua. Above all, we demonstrate a simple realization of non-supersymmetric vacua with vanishing cosmolog…
We explore various non-supersymmetric type II string vacua constructed based on asymmetric orbifolds of tori with vanishing cosmological constant at the one loop. The string vacua we present are modifications of the models studied in arXiv:1512.05155[hep-th], of which orbifold group is just generated by a single element. We especially focus on two types of modifications: (i) the orbifold twists include different types of chiral reflections not necessarily removing massless Rarita-Schwinger fields in the 4-dimensional space-time, (ii) the orbifold twists do not include the shift operator. We fu…
As a test for the non-supersymmetric attractor mechanism, we consider extremal Reissner-Nordström-(anti-)de Sitter black holes. Based on the simple observation that the near-horizon geometry of a generic extremal black hole contains two-dimensional anti-de Sitter factor even in the presence of the positive cosmological constant, we apply Ashoke Sen's entropy function method to compute the entropy of these black holes. We find the results which exactly agree with the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy. We also obtain the constant higher-order correction to the entropy due to the Gauss-Bonnet term.
A string motivated, N=1 global supersymmetric, general Lagrangian is obtained that represents an inflaton interacting with the modes of a string. Focus is placed on the Lagrangian's relevance to warm inflation, which is a cosmology based on dissipative dynamics. Several interaction schemes are identified from the general Lagrangian that may have interesting consequences for dissipative dynamics. Distributed-mass-models, which have been shown to solve the horizon problem within a warm inflation regime, are identified in the general Lagrangian.
We discuss gauge theories on D3 branes embedded in special non-tachyonic orientifolds of the 0B string theory. In general, they correspond to non-supersymmetric SU(N) gauge theories with scalars in the adjoint representation and spinors in the (anti-)symmetric representation. We study these theories via the AdS/CFT correspondence and present evidence of their relation to N=4 SYM in the planar limit. We also discuss finite N properties, focusing in particular on the renormalization group flow. Up to two loops, the logarithmic running of the gauge coupling is described by the dilaton tadpole and…
The vanishing of the cosmological constant and absence of a massless dilaton might be explained by a duality between a supersymmetric string vacuum in three dimensions and a non-supersymmetric string vacuum in four dimensions.
Guided by the naturalness criterion for an exponentially small cosmological constant, we present a string theory motivated 4-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=1$ non-linear supergravity model (or its linear version with a nilpotent superfield) with spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. The model encompasses the minimal supersymmetric standard model, the racetrack Kähler uplift, and the KKLT anti-$\rm D3$-branes, and use the nilpotent superfield to project out the undesirable interaction terms as well as the unwanted degrees of freedom to end up with the standard model (not the supersymmetric version) of …
Much of the structure of cosmological correlators is controlled by their singularities, which in turn are fixed in terms of flat-space scattering amplitudes. An important challenge is to interpolate between the singular limits to determine the full correlators at arbitrary kinematics. This is particularly relevant because the singularities of correlators are not directly observable, but can only be accessed by analytic continuation. In this paper, we study rational correlators, including those of gauge fields, gravitons, and the inflaton, whose only singularities at tree level are poles and wh…
We present a simple mechanism to eliminate cosmological constants both in supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric theories. This mechanism is based on the Hodge (Poincare) duality between a 0-form and D-form field strengths in D-dimensional space-time. The new key ingredient is the introduction of an extra Chern-Simons term into the D-form field strength H dual to the 0-form field strength. Our formulation can be also made consistent with supersymmetry. Typical applications to four-dimensional N=1 supergravity and to ten-dimensional type IIA supergravity are given. The success of our formulation…
Using an off-shell Killing spinor analysis we perform a systematic investigation of the supersymmetric background and black hole solutions of the ${\cal N}=(1,1)$ Cosmological New Massive Gravity model. The solutions with a null Killing vector are the same pp-wave solutions that one finds in the ${\cal N}=1$ model but we find new solutions with a time-like Killing vector that are absent in the ${\cal N}=1$ case. An example of such a solution is a Lifshitz spacetime. We also consider the supersymmetry properties of the so-called rotating hairy BTZ black holes and logarithmic black holes in an $…
We investigate under which conditions the cosmological constant vanishes perturbatively at the one-loop level for heterotic strings on non-supersymmetric toroidal orbifolds. To obtain model-independent results, which do not rely on the gauge embedding details, we require that the right-moving fermionic partition function vanishes identically in every orbifold sector. This means that each sector preserves at least one, but not always the same Killing spinor. The existence of such Killing spinors is related to the representation theory of finite groups, i.e. of the point group that underlies the…
Recent data point in the direction of a cosmological constant dominated universe. We investigate the role of supersymmetric QCD with N_f < N_c as a possible candidate for dynamical cosmological constant (``quintessence''). We take in full consideration the multi-scalar nature of the model, allowing for different initial conditions for the N_f independent scalar VEVs and studying the coupled system of N_f equations of motion. The issues related to the coupling of the scalars with other cosmological fields are also addressed.
It is shown that in the phenomenologically realistic supersymmetric $B-L$ MSSM theory, a linear combination of the neutral, up Higgs field with the third family left-and right-handed sneutrinos can play the role of the cosmological inflaton. Assuming that supersymmetry is softly broken at a mass scale of order $10^{13}~\mathrm{GeV}$, the potential energy associated with this field allows for 60 e-foldings of inflation with the cosmological parameters being consistent with all Planck2015 data. The theory does not require any non-standard coupling to gravity and the physical fields are all sub-P…
We revisit a mechanism proposed by Hawking to resolve the cosmological constant problem (and the controversy it generated) to identify possibly more palatable alternatives and explore new connections and interpretations. In particular, through the introduction of a new action coupling the four-form field strength $F = dA$ to the cosmological constant via a dynamical field $λ(x)$, a novel Baum-Hawking-Coleman type mechanism is presented. This mechanism can be seen as a generalisation of Unimodular Gravity. A theory with a similar coupling to "$F^2$" is also presented, with promising results. We…
If one is not ready to pay a large fine-tuning price within supersymmetric models given the current measurement of the Higgs boson mass, one can envisage a scenario where the supersymmetric spectrum is made of heavy scalar sparticles and much lighter fermionic superpartners. We offer a cosmological explanation of why nature might have chosen such a mass pattern: the opposite mass pattern is not observed experimentally because it is not compatible with the plausible idea that the universe went through a period of primordial inflation.
We consider certain four dimensional supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric asymmetric orbifolds with vanishing cosmological constant up to two loops and gauge the world sheet parity transformation. This leads to new string vacua, in which Dp and D(p-4) branes or Dp and anti-D(p-4) are identified. Moreover, it is shown that different degrees of supersymmetry can be realized in the bulk and on the brane. We show that for non-supersymmetric models the cosmological constant still vanishes at one loop order.
We construct supersymmetric solutions of theories of gauged $\mathcal{N}=1,d=5$ supergravity coupled to vector multiplets with a $\mathrm{U}(1)_{\rm R}$ Abelian (Fayet-Iliopoulos) gauging and an independent SU$(2)$ gauging associated to an $\mathrm{SU}(2)$ isometry group of the Real Special scalar manifold. These theories provide minimal supersymmetrizations of 5-dimensional SU$(2)$ Einstein-Yang-Mills theories with negative cosmological constant. We consider a minimal model with these gauge groups and the "magic model" based on the Jordan algebra $\bf{J}_{3}^\mathbb{C}$ with gauge group $\mat…
D=11 Supergravity near a space-like singularity admits a cosmological billiard description based on the hyperbolic Kac-Moody group E10. The quantization of this system via the supersymmetry constraint is shown to lead to wavefunctions involving automorphic (Maass wave) forms under the modular group W^+(E10)=PSL(2,O) with Dirichlet boundary conditions on the billiard domain. A general inequality for the Laplace eigenvalues of these automorphic forms implies that the wave function of the universe is generically complex and always tends to zero when approaching the initial singularity. We discuss…
In this work we investigate the duality linking standard and tachyon scalar field cosmologies. We determine the transformation between standard and tachyon scalar fields and between their associated potentials, corresponding to the same background evolution. We show that, in general, the duality is broken at a perturbative level, when deviations from a homogeneous and isotropic background are taken into account. However, we find that for slow-rolling fields the duality is still preserved at a linear level. We illustrate our results with specific examples of cosmological relevance, where the co…
We present a supersymmetric version of the two-brane Randall-Sundrum scenario, with arbitrary brane tensions T_1 and T_2, subject to the bound |T_{1,2}| \leq \sqrt{-6Λ_5}, where Λ_5 < 0 is the bulk cosmological constant. Dimensional reduction gives N=1, D=4 supergravity, with cosmological constant Λ_4 in the range \halfΛ_5 \leq Λ_4 \leq 0. The case with Λ_4 = 0 requires T_1 = -T_2 = \sqrt{-6Λ_5}. This work unifies and generalizes previous approaches to the supersymmetric Randall-Sundrum scenario. It also shows that the Randall-Sundrum fine-tuning is not a consequence of supersymmetry.
We explain that supersymmetric attractors in general have several critical points due to the algebraic nature of the stabilization equations. We show that the critical values of the cosmological constant of the adS_5 vacua are given by the topological (moduli independent) formulae analogous to the entropy of the d=5 supersymmetric black holes. We present conditions under which more than one critical point is available (for black hole entropy as well as to the cosmological constant) so that the system tends to its own locally stable attractor point. We have found several families of Z_2-symmetr…
It is shown that the supersymmetric extension of the Stelle-West formalism permits the construction of an action for $(3+1)$-dimensional N=1 supergravity with cosmological constant genuinely invariant under the $OSp(4/1).$ Since the action is invariant under the supersymmetric extension of the $AdS$ group, the supersymmetry algebra closes off shell without the need for auxiliary fields. The limit case $m\to 0$, i.e.$(3+1)$ -dimensional N=1 supergravity invariant under the Poincaré supergroup is also discussed.
We study the quantum fermionic billiard defined by the dynamics of a quantized supersymmetric squashed three-sphere (Bianchi IX cosmological model within D=4 simple supergravity). The quantization of the homogeneous gravitino field leads to a 64-dimensional fermionic Hilbert space. We focus on the 15- and 20-dimensional subspaces (with fermion numbers N_F=2 and N_F=3) where there exist propagating solutions of the supersymmetry constraints that carry (in the small-wavelength limit) a chaotic spinorial dynamics generalizing the Belinskii-Khalatnikov-Lifshitz classical "oscillatory" dynamics. By…
We show how chiral type I models whose tadpole conditions have no supersymmetric solution can be consistently defined introducing antibranes with non-supersymmetric world volumes. At tree level, the resulting stable non-BPS configurations correspond to tachyon-free spectra, where supersymmetry is broken at the string scale on some (anti)branes but is exact in the bulk, and can be further deformed by the addition of brane-antibrane pairs of the same type. As a result, a scalar potential is generated, that can stabilize some radii of the compact space. This setting has the novel virtue of linkin…
Beyond Discontinuities: Cosmological WFCs and the Supersymmetric Orthogonal Grassmannian
National Taiwan University（国立台湾大学）；National Center for Theoretical Sciences（国家理论科学中心）；Max Planck-IAS-NTU Center for Particle Physics, Cosmology and Geometry（马普-IAS-台大粒子物理、宇宙学与几何中心）；Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, Werner-Heisenberg-Institut（马克斯·普朗克物理学研究所，维尔纳·海森堡研究所）；University of Amsterdam（阿姆斯特丹大学）
Quasi-realistic string models in the free fermionic formulation typically contain an anomalous U(1), which gives rise to a Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term that breaks supersymmetry at the one--loop level in string perturbation theory. Supersymmetry is traditionally restored by imposing F- and D-flatness on the vacuum. By employing the standard analysis of flat directions we present a quasi--realistic three generation string model in which stringent F- and D-flat solution do not appear to exist to all orders in the superpotential. We speculate that this result is indicative of the non-existence of supe…
We review the construction of non-supersymmetric open string vacua in various dimensions. They can be obtained either projecting the (compactified) non-supersymmetric 0B theory, or applying the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism to open strings. Generically, these vacua generate a non-vanishing cosmological constant. However, one can construct particular kinds of Scherk-Schwarz compactifications with vanishing cosmological constant, at least for low orders, based on asymmetric orbifolds. A generic feature of these models is that supersymmetry remains unbroken on the branes at all mass level, while it is…
We derive conditions for the existence of four-dimensional \N=1 supersymmetric flux vacua of massive type IIA string theory with general supergravity fluxes turned on. For an SU(3) singlet Killing spinor, we show that such flux vacua exist only when the internal geometry is nearly-Kähler. The geometry is not warped, all the allowed fluxes are proportional to the mass parameter and the dilaton is fixed by a ratio of (quantized) fluxes. The four-dimensional cosmological constant, while negative, becomes small in the vacuum with the weak string coupling.
The cosmological constant problem is a failure of naturalness and suggests that a fine-tuning mechanism is at work, which may also address the hierarchy problem. An example -- supported by Weinberg's successful prediction of the cosmological constant -- is the potentially vast landscape of vacua in string theory, where the existence of galaxies and atoms is promoted to a vacuum selection criterion. Then, low energy SUSY becomes unnecessary, and supersymmetry -- if present in the fundamental theory -- can be broken near the unification scale. All the scalars of the supersymmetric standard model…
In recent work Kachru, Kumar and Silverstein introduced a special class of non-supersymmetric type II string theories in which the cosmological constant vanishes at the first two orders of perturbation theory. Heuristic arguments suggest the cosmological constant may vanish in these theories to all orders in perturbation theory leading to a flat potential for the dilaton. A slight variant of their model can be described in terms of a dual heterotic theory. The dual theory has a non-zero cosmological constant which is non-perturbative in the coupling of the original type II theory. The dual the…
Boson, fermion, and super oscillators and (statistical) mechanism of cosmological constant; finite approximation of the zeta-function and fermion factorization of the bosonic statistical sum considered.
The $N=1$ supersymmetric Born-Infeld theory coupled to $N=1$ supergravity in four spacetime dimensions is studied in the presence of a cosmological term with spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. The consistency is achieved by compensating a negative contribution to the cosmological term from the Born-Infeld theory by a positive contribution originating from the gravitino condensate. This leads to an identification of the Born-Infeld scale with the supersymmetry breaking scale. The dynamical formation of the gravitino condensate in supergravity is reconsidered and the induced one-loop effective …
The multi-parameter character of supersymmetric dark-matter models implies the combination of their experimental studies with astrophysical and cosmological probes. The physics of the early Universe provides nontrivial effects of non-equilibrium particles and primordial cosmological structures. Primordial black holes (PBHs) are a profound signature of such structures that may arise as a cosmological consequence of supersymmetric (SUSY) models. SUSY-based mechanisms of baryosynthesis can lead to the possibility of antimatter domains in a baryon asymmetric Universe. In the context of cosmopartic…
In the quantum adelic field (string) theory models, vacuum energy -- cosmological constant vanish. The other (alternative ?) mechanism is given by supersymmetric theories. Some observations on prime numbers, zeta -- function and fine structure constant are also considered.
This article critically reviews the proposal for addressing the cosmological constant problem within the framework of supersymmetric large extra dimensions (SLED), as recently proposed in hep-th/0304256. After a brief restatement of the cosmological constant problem, a short summary of the proposed mechanism is given. The emphasis is on the perspective of the low-energy effective theory in order to see how it addresses the problem of why low-energy particles like the electron do not contribute too large a vacuum energy. This is followed by a discussion of the main objections, which are grouped…
We discuss cosmological implications of nonlinear supersymmetric(NLSUSY) general relativity(GR) of the form of Einstein-Hilbert(EH) action for empty spacetime, where NLSUSY GR is obtained by the geomtrical arguments on new spacetime just inspired by NLSUSY. The new action of NLSUSY GR is unstable and breaks down spontaneously to EH action with Nambu-Goldstone(NG) fermion matter. We show that NLSUSY GR elucidates the physical meanings of the cosmologically important quantities, e.g., the spontaneous SUSY breaking scale, the cosmological constant, the dark energy and the neutrino mass and descri…
We investigate a scenario of cosmological inflation realised along a flat direction of the minimal seesaw model embedded in supergravity with a noncanonical R-parity violating Kähler potential. It is shown that with appropriate seesaw parameters the model is consistent with the present observation of the cosmological microwave background (CMB) as well as with the neutrino oscillation data. It is also shown that the baryon asymmetry of the Universe can be generated through leptogenesis. The model favours supersymmetry breaking with the gravitino as the lightest superparticle, and thus indicates…
In N=1 supergravity the scalar potential of the hidden sector may have degenerate supersymmetric (SUSY) and non-supersymmetric Minkowski vacua. In this case local SUSY in the second supersymmetric Minkowski phase can be broken dynamically. Assuming that such a second phase and the phase associated with the physical vacuum are exactly degenerate, we estimate the value of the cosmological constant. We argue that the observed value of the dark energy density can be reproduced if in the second vacuum local SUSY breaking is induced by gaugino condensation at a scale which is just slightly lower tha…
This work summarises recent progress obtained by the mini-superpspace quantization of $\mathcal N=1$, $d=4$ supergravity, formulated in the framework of the Bianchi IX cosmological model. The emphasis is put on three main results : the completeness of the solution space obtained, the elements suggesting a hidden Kac-Moody structure of the theory and those leading to conjecture an avoidance of the cosmological singularity by some branches of the wave function of the Universe.
Recent developments in string theory have reinforced the notion that the space of stable supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric string vacua fills out a ``landscape'' whose features are largely unknown. It is then hoped that progress in extracting phenomenological predictions from string theory -- such as correlations between gauge groups, matter representations, potential values of the cosmological constant, and so forth -- can be achieved through statistical studies of these vacua. To date, most of the efforts in these directions have focused on Type I vacua. In this note, we present the firs…
We compute the 4--dimensional cosmological constant in string compactifications in which the Standard Model fields live on a non-supersymmetric brane inside a supersymmetric bulk. The cosmological constant receives contributions only from the vacuum energy of the bulk supergravity fields, but not from the vacuum energy of the brane fields. The latter is absorbed in a warp factor. Supersymmetry breaking on the brane at the TeV scale implies supersymmetry breaking in the bulk at the micrometer scale. This produces a tiny cosmological constant that agrees with experiment within a few orders of ma…
In supersymmetric theories, topological defects can have nontrivial behaviors determined purely by whether or not supersymmetry is restored in the defect core. A well-known example of this is that some supersymmetric cosmic strings are automatically superconducting, leading to important cosmological effects and constraints. We investigate the impact of nontrivial kinetic interactions, present in a number of particle physics models of interest in cosmology, on the relationship between supersymmetry and supercurrents on strings. We find that in some cases it is possible for superconductivity to …
In the landscape, if there is to be any prospect of scientific prediction, it is crucial that there be states which are distinguished in some way. The obvious candidates are states which exhibit symmetries. Here we focus on states which exhibit discrete symmetries. Such states are rare, but one can speculate that they are cosmological attractors. We investigate the problem in model landscapes and cosmologies which capture some of the features of candidate flux landscapes. In non-supersymmetric theories we find no evidence that such states might be cosmologically favored. In supersymmetric theo…
We provide an explicit example of a higher-dimensional model describing a non-supersymmetric spectrum of 4D particles of mass M, whose 4D geometry -- {\em including loop effects} -- has a curvature that is of order R ~ m_KK^4/M_p^2, where m_KK is the extra-dimensional Kaluza-Klein scale and M_p is the 4D Planck constant. m_KK is stabilized and can in particular satisfy m_KK << M. The system consists of a (5+1)-dimensional model with a flux-stabilized supersymmetric bulk coupled to non-supersymmetric matter localized on a (3+1)-dimensional positive-tension brane. We use recent techniques for ca…
Cosmological inflation is studied in the case where the inflaton is the overall modulus $T$ for an orbifold. General forms of the (non-perturbative) superpotential are considered to ensure that $G=K+{\rm ln}|W|^2$ is modular invariant. We find generically that these models do not produce a potential flat enough for slow roll to a supersymmetric minimum, although we do find a model which produces up to 20 e-folds of inflation to a non-supersymmetric minimum.
We examine the form of the cosmological constant in the loop expansion of broken maximally supersymmetric supergravity theories, and after embedding, within superstring and M-theory. Supersymmetry breaking at the TeV scale generates values of the cosmological constant that are in agreement with current astrophysical data. The form of perturbative quantum effects in the loop expansion is consistent with this parameter regime.
In this article we show that finite perturbative corrections in non-supersymmetric strings can be understood via an interplay between modular invariance and misaligned supersymmetry. While modular invariance is known to be crucial in closed-string models, its presence and role for open strings is more subtle. Nevertheless, we argue that it leads to cancellations in physical quantities such as the one-loop cosmological constant and prevents them from diverging. In particular, we show that if the sector-averaged number of states does not grow exponentially, as predicted by misaligned supersymmet…
In this short note we review the main features of open-string orbifolds with a quantised flux for the NS-NS antisymmetric tensor in the context of the open descendants of non-supersymmetric asymmetric orbifolds with a vanishing cosmological constant.
