We discuss the problem of metastable SUSY breaking in the landscape. While this is clearly crucial for the various de Sitter proposals, it is also interesting to consider the SUSY breaking challenge in the AdS context. For example, it could be that a stronger form of the non-SUSY AdS conjecture holds: It would forbid even metastable non-SUSY AdS in cases where the SUSY-breaking scale is parametrically above/below the AdS scale. At the technical level, the present paper proposes to break SUSY using the multi-cosine-shaped axion potentials which arise if a long winding trajectory of a `complex-structure axion' appears in the large-complex-structure limit of a Calabi-Yau orientifold. This has been studied in the context of `Winding Inflation', but the potential for SUSY breaking has not been fully explored. We discuss the application to uplifting LVS vacua, point out the challenges which one faces in the KKLT context, and consider the possibility of violating the non-SUSY AdS conjecture in the type-IIA setting of DGKT.
We propose the use of D-brane realizations of Dynamical Supersymmetry Breaking (DSB) gauge sectors as sources of uplift in compactifications with moduli stabilization onto de Sitter vacua. This construction is fairly different from the introduction of anti D-branes, yet allows for tunably small contributions to the vacuum energy via their embedding into warped throats. The idea is explicitly exemplified by the embedding of the 1-family $SU(5)$ DSB model in a local warped throat with fluxes, which we discuss in detail in terms of orientifolds of dimer diagrams.
The Hubble parameter during the inflationary era must be smaller than the gravitino mass if the moduli are stabilized by the Kachru-Kallosh-Linde-Trivedi mechanism. This condition represents the difficulty to combine the low scale SUSY breaking and the high scale inflation. We propose a simple mechanism which can naturally separate the inflation scale from the SUSY breaking scale today.
We search for viable models of direct gauge mediation, where the SUSY-breaking sector is (generalized) SQCD, which has cosmologically favorable uplifted vacua even when the reheating temperature is well above the messenger scale. This requires a relatively large tadpole term in the scalar potential for the spurion field X and, consequently, we argue that pure (deformed) SQCD is not a viable model. On the other hand, in SQCD with an adjoint, which is natural e.g. in string theory, assuming an appropriate sign in the Kahler potential for X, such metastable vacua are possible.
We propose a combined mechanism to realize both winding inflation and de Sitter uplifts. We realize the necessary structure of competing terms in the scalar potential not via tuning the vacuum expectation values of the complex structure moduli, but by a hierarchy of the Gopakumar-Vafa invariants of the underlying Calabi-Yau threefold. To show that Calabi-Yau threefolds with the prescribed hierarchy actually exist, we explicitly create a database of all the genus $0$ Gopakumar-Vafa invariants up to total degree $10$ for all the complete intersection Calabi-Yau's up to Picard number $9$. As a si…
We study concretely several issues altogether, moduli stabilization, the dynamical supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking, the uplifting of SUSY anti-de Sitter (AdS) vacuum and the sequestering of hidden sector, in a simple supergravity model with a single extra dimension. The sequestering is achieved dynamically by a wavefunction localization in extra dimension. The expressions for the visible sector soft SUSY breaking terms as well as the hidden sector potential are shown explicitly in our model. We find that the tree-level soft scalar mass and the A-term can be suppressed at a SUSY breaking Minkowsk…
We propose a direct gauge mediation model based on an uplifted metastable SUSY breaking coupled to supergravity. A constant superpotential plays an essential role to fix the moduli as well as breaking SUSY and R-symmetry and the cancellation of the cosmological constant. Gaugino masses are generated at leading order of SUSY breaking scale, and comparable to the sfermion masses as in the ordinary gauge mediation. Landau pole problem for QCD coupling can be easily solved since more than half of messengers become superheavy, which are heavier than the GUT scale.
We study de Wit-Hoppe-Nicolai supermembrane with emphasis on the winding in M-direction. We propose a SUSY algebra of the supermembrane in the Lorentz invariant form. We analyze the BPS conditions and argue that the area preserving diffeomorphism constraints associated with the harmonic vector fields play an essential role. We derive the first order partial differential equation that describes the BPS state with one quarter SUSY.
We study the influence of anomalous U(1) symmetries and their associated D-terms on the vacuum structure of global field theories once they are coupled to N=1 supergravity and in the context of string compactifications with moduli stabilisation. In particular, we focus on a IIB string motivated construction of the ISS scenario and examine the influence of one additional U(1) symmetry on the vacuum structure. We point out that in the simplest one-Kahler modulus compactification, the original ISS vacuum gets generically destabilised by a runaway behaviour of the potential in the modulus directio…
In six- and seven-dimensional gauged supergravity, each scalar potential has one supersymmetric and one non-supersymmetric fixed points. The non-supersymmetric $AdS_7$ fixed point is perturbatively unstable. On the other hand, the non-supersymmetric $AdS_6$ fixed point is known to be perturbatively stable. In this note we examine the newly proposed non-perturbative decay channel, called brane-jet instabilities of the $AdS_6$ and $AdS_7$ vacua. We find that when they are uplifted to massive type IIA and eleven-dimensional supergravity, respectively, the non-supersymmetric $AdS_6$ and $AdS_7$ va…
We obtain the joint distribution of the gravitino mass and the cosmological constant in KKLT and LVS models with anti-D3 brane uplifting described via the nilpotent goldstino formalism. Moduli stabilisation (of both complex structure and Kaehler moduli) is incorporated so that we sample only over points corresponding to vacua. Our key inputs are the distributions of the flux superpotential, the string coupling and the hierarchies of warped throats. In the limit of zero cosmological constant, we find that both in KKLT and LVS the distributions are tilted favourably towards lower scales of super…
We investigate neutralino dark matter from a string/M-theory perspective. Using the Kallosh-Linde (KL) scenario to stabilize the string moduli requires supersymmetry breaking for uplifting to a de Sitter vacuum. We consider the free magnetic dual description of $\mathcal{N}=1$ SUSY QCD with massive flavours, the Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih model (ISS), as an F-term dynamical SUSY breaking sector. This framework allows for a gravitino mass in the TeV range. Moreover, due to the plethora of particles from the ISS sector, we investigate the consequences of coupling the MSSM with the KL-ISS setup to…
We study how coupling to supergravity affects the phase structure of a system exhibiting dynamical supersymmetry breaking in a metastable vacuum. More precisely, we consider the Seiberg dual of SQCD coupled to supergravity at finite temperature. We show that the gravitational interactions decrease the critical temperature for the second order phase transition in the quark direction, that is also present in the global case. Furthermore, we find that, due to supergravity, a new second order phase transition occurs in the meson direction, whenever there is a nonvanishing constant term in the supe…
A simple mechanism for SUSY breaking is proposed due to the coexistence of BPS domain walls. It requires no messenger fields nor complicated SUSY breaking sector on any of the walls. We assumed that our world is on a BPS domain wall and that the other BPS wall breaks the SUSY preserved by our wall. We obtain an ${\cal N}=1$ model in four dimensions which admits an exact solution of a stable non-BPS configuration of two walls. The stability is assured by a topological quantum number associated with the winding on the field space of the topology of $S^1$. We propose that the overlap of the wave …
In this thesis we explore the vacua structure of type IIA orientifold (CY) compactifications with fluxes, from the 4d and the 10d point of view. We start by reviewing type IIA Calabi-Yau orientifold compactifications with fluxes. We consider RR and NSNS fluxes, and then add (non)-geometric fluxes. We recall how the potential can be written as a bilinear expression and review the main swampland conjectures involving these scenarios. Once the basics have been setted, we perform a systematic search of vacua, using directly the 4d action. We focus first on the case with RR and NSNS fluxes and then…
Using a 10D lift of non-perturbative volume stabilization in type IIB string theory we study the limitations for obtaining de Sitter vacua. Based on this we find that the simplest KKLT vacua with a single Kahler modulus stabilized by a gaugino condensate cannot be uplifted to de Sitter. Rather, the uplift flattens out due to stronger backreaction on the volume modulus than has previously been anticipated, resulting in vacua which are meta-stable and SUSY breaking, but that are always AdS. However, we also show that setups such as racetrack stabilization can avoid this issue. In these models it…
The breaking of $U(1)_R$ symmetry plays a crucial role in modeling the breaking of supersymmetry (SUSY). In the models that possess both SUSY preserving and SUSY breaking vacua, tube-like cosmic strings called R-tubes, whose surfaces are constituted by domain walls interpolating a false and a true vacuum with some winding numbers, can exist. Their (in)stability can strongly constrain SUSY breaking models theirselves. In the present study, we investigate the dynamical (in)stability of two colliding metastable tube-like strings by field-theoretic simulations. From them, we find that the strings …
In this paper we first investigate the Ansatz of one of the present authors for K(Ψ,\barΨ), the adimensional modular invariant non-holomorphic correction to the Wilsonian effective Lagrangian of an N=2 globally supersymmetric gauge theory. The renormalisation group beta-function of the theory crucially allows us to express K(Ψ,\barΨ) in a form that easily generalises to the case in which the theory is coupled to N_F hypermultiplets in the fundamental representation of the gauge group. This function satisfies an equation which should be viewed as a fully non-perturbative ``non-chiral superconfo…
We study the effective field theory of KKLT and LVS moduli stabilisation scenarios coupled to an anti-D3-brane at the tip of a warped throat. We describe the presence of the anti-brane in terms of a nilpotent goldstino superfield in a supersymmetric effective field theory. The introduction of this superfield produces a term that can lead to a de Sitter minimum. We fix the Kaehler moduli dependence of the nilpotent field couplings by matching this term with the anti-D3-brane uplifting contribution. The main result of this paper is the computation, within this EFT, of the soft supersymmetry brea…
We consider a supersymmetric completion of codimension-two branes with nonzero tension in a 6D gauged supergravity. As a consequence, we obtain the football solution with 4D Minkowski space as a new supersymmetric background that preserves 4D N=1 SUSY. In the presence of brane multiplets, we derive the 4D effective supergravity action for the football background and show that the remaining modulus can be stabilized by a bulk non-perturbative correction with brane uplifting potentials at a zero vacuum energy. We find that the U(1)_R mediation can be a dominant source of SUSY breaking for a bran…
We study heterotic ground states in which supersymmetry is broken by coupling the momentum and winding charges of two large extra dimensions to the R-charges of the supersymmetry generators. The large dimensions give rise to towers of heavy string thresholds that contribute to the running of the gauge couplings. In the general case, these contributions are proportional to the volume of the two large dimensions and invalidate the perturbative string expansion. The problem is evaded if the susy breaking sectors arise as a spontaneously broken phase of N=4 -> N=2 -> N=0 supersymmetry, provided th…
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 a…
We present possible realizations of gauge inflation arising from a 5D ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric U(1) model, where the extra dimension is compactified on a circle. A one-loop inflaton effective 4D potential is generated, with the inflaton being a 'Wilson-line field'. It relies on a SUSY breaking. We first consider SUSY breaking to occur spontaneously within a 'no-scale' model by a non zero $F$-term of the radion superfield which transmits SUSY breaking into the 'visible' sector. As an alternative, we study $D$-term SUSY breaking originating directly from the 5D gauge supermultiplet. Together …
In this paper, we give a systematic procedure for building locally stable dS vacua in $\mathcal{N}=1$ supergravity models motivated by string theory. We assume that one of the superfields has a Kahler potential of no-scale type and impose a hierarchy of supersymmetry breaking conditions. In the no-scale modulus direction the supersymmetry breaking is not small, in all other directions it is of order $ε$. We establish the existence of an abundance of vacua for large regions in the parameter space spanned by $ε$ and the cosmological constant. These regions exist regardless of the details of the …
