If supersymmetry is broken in metastable vacua, it is not clear why we are now in there rather than supersymmetric vacua. Moreover, it is natural to expect that we were in supersymmetric vacua, which have higher symmetry than metastable vacua, in the early universe. In this paper, we reexamine and improve the previous analysis on the cosmological evolution of the vacuum structure in the ISS model of metastable supersymmetry breaking by taking into account constraints on the reheating temperature, which is needed to avoid the overproduction of gravitinos. It turns out that the desired phase transition from a supersymmetric vacuum to a metastable vacuum is allowed only in the light gravitino mass region $m_{3/2} < 4.7$ eV. This is achieved by either rolling down potential or tunneling processes depending on the reheating temperature. We show that when the tunneling processes are realized, abundant gravitational waves could be produced from collisions of runaway bubbles. The resulting gravitational waves are detectable with the future gravitational wave interferometers like LISA and DECIGO.
We study the scenario that conformal dynamics leads to metastable supersymmetry breaking vacua. At a high energy scale, the superpotential is not R-symmetric, and has a supersymmetric minimum. However, conformal dynamics suppresses several operators along renormalization group flow toward the infrared fixed point. Then we can find an approximately R-symmetric superpotential, which has a metastable supersymmetry breaking vacuum, and the supersymmetric vacuum moves far away from the metastable supersymmetry breaking vacuum. We show a 4D simple model. Furthermore, we can construct 5D models with …
I put metastable supersymmetry breaking in a cosmological context. I argue that under reasonable assumptions, the cooling down early Universe favors metastable SUSY-breaking vacua over the stable supersymmetric vacua. To illustrate the general argument, I analyze the early-Universe history of the Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih model.
We construct new examples of models of metastable D=4 N=1 supersymmetry breaking in which all scales are generated dynamically. Our models rely on Seiberg duality and on the ISS mechanism of supersymmetry breaking in massive SQCD. Some of the electric quark superfields arise as composites of a strongly coupled gauge sector. This allows us to start with a simple cubic superpotential and an asymptotically free gauge group in the ultraviolet, and end up with an infrared effective theory which breaks supersymmetry dynamically in a metastable state.
Models of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking generically have an R-symmetry, which is problematic for obtaining gaugino masses and avoiding light R-axions. The situation is improved in models of metastable supersymmetry breaking, which generically have only an approximate R-symmetry. Based on this we argue, with mild assumptions, that metastable supersymmetry breaking is inevitable. We also illustrate various general issues regarding spontaneous and explicit R-symmetry breaking, using simple toy models of supersymmetry breaking.
We study the direct mediation of metastable supersymmetry breaking by a Φ^2-deformation to the ISS model and extend it by splitting both TrΦand TrΦ^2 terms in the superpotential and gauging the flavor symmetry. We find that with such an extension the enough long-lived metastable vacua can be obtained and the proper gaugino masses can be generated. Also, this allows for constructing a kind of models which can avoid the Landau pole problem. Especially, in our metastable vacua there exist a large region for the parameter m_3 which can satisfy the phenomenology requirements and allow for a low SUS…
We construct a model with long-lived metastable vacua in which all the relevant parameters, including the supersymmetry breaking scale, are generated dynamically by dimensional transmutation. The metastable vacua appear along a pseudo-runaway direction near a point of enhanced symmetry as a result of a balance between non-perturbative and perturbative quantum effects. We show that metastable supersymmetry breaking is a rather generic feature near certain enhanced symmetry points of gauge theory moduli spaces.
We analyze an R-symmetry breaking deformation of the ISS model for a direct mediation of supersymmetry breaking from a metastable vacuum. The model is weakly coupled and calculable. The LSP gravitino is light (m_{3/2}<16 eV) and the MSSM spectrum is natural with a light Higgs. The supersymmetry breaking sector, which is usually hidden, is observable (m~1 TeV) and may be a candidate for cold dark matter. We discuss its production and signature at LHC. We propose a UV completion of the model in terms of a duality cascade.
We construct a model with D5 branes wrapped on a deformed and resolved $A_6$ singularity which realizes metastable supersymmetry breaking and minimal gauge mediation. Supersymmetry is broken at tree level by the F--term of singlet which also obtains a VEV as required in gauge mediation. Three nodes of the singularity are used to break supersymmetry whereas the other three realize gauge mediation. The supersymmetry breaking scale is suppressed due to brane instanton effects which are computed using a geometric transition.
We give a concise geometric recipe for constructing D-brane gauge theories that exhibit metastable SUSY breaking. We present two simple examples in terms of branes at deformed CY singularities.
We consider the metastable N=1 QCD model of Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih (ISS), deformed by adding a baryon term to the superpotential. This simple deformation causes the spontaneous breaking of the approximate R-symmetry of the metastable vacuum. We then gauge the flavour SU(5)_f and identify it with the parent gauge symmetry of the Standard Model (SM). This implements direct mediation of supersymmetry breaking without the need for an additional messenger sector. A reasonable choice of parameters leads to gaugino masses of the right order. Finally, we speculate that the entire ``ISS x SM'' …
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 examine a metastable $\mathcal{N}=1$ Macroscopic SO(N) SQCD model of Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih (ISS). We introduce various baryon and meson deformations, including multitrace operators and explore embedding an SO(10) parent of the standard model into two weakly gauged flavour sectors. Direct fundamental messengers and the symmetric pseudo-modulus messenger mediate SUSY breaking to the MSSM. Gaugino and sfermion masses are computed and compared for each deformation type. We also explore reducing the rank of the magnetic quark matrix of the ISS model and find an additional fundamental me…
We discuss generalizations of Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih (ISS) vacua to chiral models. We study one example, of an s-confining theory, in detail. In the IR, this example reduces to two ISS-like sectors, and exhibits a supersymmetry-breaking vacuum with all pseudo-moduli stabilized at the origin, and with the R-symmetry unbroken. The IR theory is interesting from the point of view of R-symmetry breaking. This theory is an O'Raifeartaigh model with all charges zero or two, but the presence of a second R-charged pseudo-modulus with superpotential couplings to the messengers in principle allows for…
We construct Abelian brane models with metastable vacua which are obtained from deformations of ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetric brane configurations. One such model lives on a D4 brane stretched between two displaced and rotated NS5 branes. Another one lives on a D5 brane wrapped on a deformed and fibered $A_2$ singularity.
We study the compatibility of spontaneous breaking of parity and successful cosmology in a left-right symmetric model where supersymmetry breaking is achieved in metastable vacua. We show that domain walls formed due to this breaking can be removed due to Planck scale suppressed terms, provided the parity breaking scale $M_R$ is constrained to remain smaller than $10^{10}-10^{11}$ GeV. Ensuring metastability is achieved naturally even if the entire mechanism operates at low scales, within a few orders of magnitude of the TeV scale. Taking $M_R$ as high as permitted, close to the acceptable reh…
In this Note we study supersymmetry breaking via gaugino condensation in string gas cosmology. We show that the same gaugino condensate which is introduced to stabilize the dilaton breaks supersymmetry. We study the constraints on the scale of supersymmetry breaking which this mechanism leads to.
Metastable vacua in supersymmetric QCD in the presence of single and multitrace deformations of the superpotential are explored, with the aim of obtaining an acceptable phenomenology. The metastable vacua appear at one loop, have a broken R-symmetry, and a magnetic gauge group that is completely Higgsed. With only a single trace deformation, the adjoint fermions from the meson superfield are approximately massless at one loop, even though they are massive at tree level and R-symmetry is broken. Consequently, if charged under the standard model, they are unacceptably light. A multitrace quadrat…
Supersymmetry breaking in a metastable vacuum is re-examined in a cosmological context. It is shown that thermal effects generically drive the Universe to the metastable minimum even if it begins in the supersymmetry-preserving one. This is a generic feature of the ISS models of metastable supersymmetry breaking due to the fact that SUSY preserving vacua contain fewer light degrees of freedom than the metastable ground state at the origin. These models of metastable SUSY breaking are thus placed on an equal footing with the more usual dynamical SUSY breaking scenarios.
We consider the stability of non-supersymmetric critical points of general N=4 supergravities. A powerful method to analyse this issue based on the sGoldstino direction has been developed for minimal supergravity. We adapt this to the present case, and address the conceptually new features arising for extended supersymmetry. As an application, we investigate the stability when supersymmetry breaking proceeds via either the gravity or the matter sector. Finally, we outline the N=8 case.
We show that contrary to the common lore it is possible to spontaneously break N=2 supersymmetry even in simple theories without constant Fayet-Iliopoulos terms. We consider the most general N=2 supersymmetric theory with one hypermultiplet and one vector multiplet without Fayet-Iliopoulos terms, and show that metastable supersymmetry breaking vacua can arise if both the hyper-Kahler and the special-Kahler geometries are suitably curved. We then also prove that while all the scalars can be massive, the lightest one is always lighter than the vector boson. Finally, we argue that these results a…
We propose a new chiral model of metastable supersymmetry breaking in the conformal window via chiral/nonchiral Seiberg duality, which is focused on Spin(7)/SU(N_f-4) duality in this letter. Following the approach of Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih model, a small mass perturbation in the nonchiral theory leads to supersymmetry breaking by rank condition in the chiral dual description.
We analyze the space of linearized non-supersymmetric deformations around a IIA solution found by Cvetic, Gibbons, Lu and Pope (CGLP) in hep-th/0101096. We impose boundary conditions aimed at singling out among those perturbations those describing the backreaction of anti-D2 branes on the CGLP background. The corresponding supergravity solution is a would-be dual to a metastable supersymmetry-breaking state. However, it turns out that this candidate bulk solution is inevitably riddled with IR divergences of its flux densities and action, whose physical meaning and implications for models of st…
We study the existence of metastable vacua in cascades based on fractional brane configurations at non-isolated singularities preserving N = 1 supersymmetry. We find that in a large class of models the extra moduli typically generated along such cascades may be stabilized by utilizing special monopole points found recently. We illustrate this in detail for cascades based on the SPP singularity. The supergravity interpretation of these constructions in terms of warped throats with supersymmetry breaking localized near their tips as well as applications to string compactification is discussed. O…
We show that metastable supersymmetry breaking is generic near certain enhanced symmetry points of gauge theory moduli spaces. Our model consists of two sectors coupled by a singlet and combines dynamical supersymmetry breaking with an O'Raifeartaigh mechanism in terms of confined variables. All relevant mass parameters, including the supersymmetry breaking scale, are generated dynamically. The metastable vacua appear as a result of a balance between non-perturbative and perturbative quantum effects along a pseudo-runaway direction.
We study N=1 global and local supersymmetric theories with a continuous global $U(1)_R$ symmetry as models of dynamical supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking. We introduce explicit R-symmetry breaking terms into such models, in particular a generalized O'Raifeartaigh model. Such explicit R-symmetry breaking terms can lead to a SUSY preserving minimum. We classify explicit R-symmetry breaking terms by the structure of newly appeared SUSY stationary points as a consequence of the R-breaking effect, which could make the SUSY breaking vacuum metastable. We show that the R-breaking terms are basically divi…
Metastable, supersymmetry-breaking configurations can be created in flux geometries by placing antibranes in warped throats. Via gauge/gravity duality, such configurations should have an interpretation as supersymmetry-breaking states in the dual field theory. In this paper, we perturbatively determine the asymptotic supergravity solutions corresponding to anti-D3-brane probes placed at the tip of the cascading warped deformed conifold geometry, which is dual to an SU(N+M) x SU(N) gauge theory. The backreaction of the antibranes has the effect of introducing imaginary anti-self-dual flux, squa…
Until recently, dynamical supersymmetry breaking seemed an exceptional phenomenon, involving chiral gauge theories with a special structure. Recently it has become clear that requiring only metastable states with broken supersymmetry leads to a far broader class of theories. In this paper, we extend these constructions still further, finding new classes which, unlike earlier theories, do not have unbroken, approximate $R$ symmetries. This allows construction of new models with direct gauge mediation. These theories permit a relatively compact solution to the $μ$ problem.
We analyze metastable supersymmetry breaking in 3D WZ models. We study the regime of validity of the perturbative computation for superpotentials with marginal and relevant couplings. Lifetime of the metastable states in presence of a triangular potential barrier is estimated.
We study the possibility of obtaining metastable supersymmetry breaking vacua in a perturbative gauge theory without singlet fields, thus allowing for scenarios where a grand unified symmetry and supersymmetry are broken by the same sector. We show some explicit SU(5) examples. The minimal renormalizable example requires the use of two adjoints, but it is shown to inevitably lead to unwanted light states. We suggest various alternatives, and show that the viable possibilities consist of allowing for non-renormalizable operators, of employing four adjoints or of adding at least one field in a d…
We construct a supersymmetric version of the Standard Model which contains a long-lived metastable vacuum. In this vacuum supersymmetry is broken and the electroweak symmetry is Higgsed, and we identify it with the physical ground state of the Standard Model. In our approach the metastable supersymmetry breaking (MSB) occurs directly in the SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y sector of the Standard Model; it does not require a separate MSB sector and in this way it departs from the usual lore. There is a direct link between the electroweak symmetry breaking and the supersymmetry breaking in our model, both effec…
We present a general scheme for finding or creating a metastable vacuum in supersymmetric theories. By using the formalism, we show that there is a parameter region where a metastable vacuum exists in the Wess-Zumino model coupled to messenger fields. This model serves as a perturbative renormalizable model of direct gauge mediation.
We propose a model of metastable dynamical supersymmetry breaking in which all scales are generated dynamically. Our construction is a simple variant of the Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih model, with quark masses induced by renormalizable couplings to an auxiliary supersymmetric QCD sector. Since all scales arise from dimensional transmutation, the model has no fundamental dimensionful parameters. It also does not rely on higher-dimensional operators.
We present the mechanism of the dynamical supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking at the metastable vacuum in the N=1 U(N) SUSY gauge theory with adjoint superfields. The dynamical SUSY breaking is triggered by the non-vanishing D-term coupled to the observable sector, and is realized by the self-consistent Hartree-Fock approximation of the NJL type while it eventually brings us the non-vanishing F-term as well. We numerically check the local stability of our metastable vacuum.
We construct an N=2 supersymmetric generalization of the N=1 supercurrent formalism of Komargodski and Seiberg (KS) and use it to show that N=2 theories with linear superconformal anomalies cannot break SUSY under certain broad assumptions. This result suggests that there are no metastable SUSY breaking vacua in a large class of theories that includes N=2 Super Yang-Mills (SYM).
In this paper we consider quiver gauge theories with fractional branes whose infrared dynamics removes the classical supersymmetric vacua (DSB branes). We show that addition of flavors to these theories (via additional non-compact branes) leads to local meta-stable supersymmetry breaking minima, closely related to those of SQCD with massive flavors. We simplify the study of the one-loop lifting of the accidental classical flat directions by direct computation of the pseudomoduli masses via Feynman diagrams. This new approach allows to obtain analytic results for all these theories. This work e…
This article reviews the subject of supersymmetry and its breaking. The emphasis is on recent developments in metastable, dynamical supersymmetry breaking, which permit the construction of promising models of particle physics.
We review the subject of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. First we consider supersymmetry breaking in a semiclassical theory. We illustrate it with several examples, demonstrating different phenomena, including metastable supersymmetry breaking. Then we give a brief review of the dynamics of supersymmetric gauge theories. Finally, we use this dynamics to present various mechanisms for dynamical supersymmetry breaking. These notes are based on lectures given by the authors in 2007, at various schools.
We consider the phase transition of a string with tension $\eps_1$ to a string with a smaller tension $\eps_2$. The transition proceeds through quantum tunneling, and we calculate in arbitrary number of dimensions the pre-exponential factor multiplying the leading semiclassical exponential expression for the rate of the process. At $\eps_2=0$ the found formula for the decay rate also describes a break up of a metastable string into two pieces.
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 review mechanisms of dynamical supersymmetry breaking. Several observations that narrow the search for possible models of dynamical supersymmetry breaking are summarized. These observations include the necessary and sufficient conditions for supersymmetry breaking. The two conditions are based on non-rigorous arguments, and we show examples where they are too restrictive. Dynamical effects present in models with product gauge groups are given special attention.
Much has been learned about metastable vacua and R-symmetry breaking in O'Raifeartaigh models. Such work has largely been done from the perspective of the superpotential and by including Coleman-Weinberg corrections to the scalar potential. Instead, we consider these ideas from the perspective of the one loop effective Kahler potential. We translate known ideas to this framework and construct convenient formulas for computing individual terms in the expanded effective Kahler potential. We do so for arbitrary R-charge assignments and allow for small R-symmetry violating terms so that both spont…
Dynamical supersymmetry breaking is considered in models which admit descriptions in terms of electric, confined, or magnetic degrees of freedom in various limits. In this way, a variety of seemingly different theories which break supersymmetry are actually inter-related by confinement or duality. Specific examples are given in which there are two dual descriptions of the supersymmetry breaking ground state.
We consider supersymmetry breaking models with a purely constant superpotential in supergravity. The supersymmetry breaking is induced for the vanishing cosmological constant. As a hidden mediation sector of supersymmetry breaking, it naturally leads to a split spectrum in supersymmetric standard model. We also point out possible utility of our setup to construct nonlinear sigma model and/or Fayet-Iliopoulos-like term in broken supergravity.
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.
We show that for the simplest models of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking, including all existing models, the true vacuum will not preserve QCD if it communicates supersymmetry breaking to the visible sector. We show that the desired supersymmetry breaking color preserving vacuum can nonetheless be stable cosmologically, but only if certain couplings are sufficiently small. We also present simple modifications to the sector which communicates supersymmetry breaking in which the true vacuum is acceptable, suggesting desirable properties to be sought in dynamical models of supersymmetry brea…
In the Randall-Sundrum compactification of AdS$_5$ with detuned brane tensions, supersymmetry can be spontaneously broken by a non-trivial Wilson line for the graviphoton. The supersymmetry breaking vanishes in the tuned limit. This effect is equivalent to supersymmetry breaking by Scherk-Schwarz boundary conditions.
We study gauge mediation in a wide class of O'Raifeartaigh type models where supersymmetry breaking metastable vacuum is created by gravity and/or quantum corrections. We examine their thermal evolution in the early universe and the conditions under which the susy breaking vacuum can be selected. It is demonstrated that thermalization typically makes the metastable supersymmetry breaking cosmologically disfavoured but this is not always the case. Initial conditions with the spurion displaced from the symmetric thermal minimum and a small coupling to the messenger sector can result in the reali…
We study Seiberg duality for N=1 supersymmetric QCD with soft supersymmetry-breaking terms. We generate the soft terms through gauge mediation by coupling two theories related by Seiberg duality to the same supersymmetry-breaking sector. In this way, we know what a supersymmetry-breaking perturbation in one theory maps into in its ``dual''. Assuming a canonical Kahler potential we calculate the soft terms induced in the magnetic theory and find that some of the scalars acquire negative masses squared. If duality is still good for small supersymmetry breaking, this may imply some specific symme…
This is a review of basic ideas and mechanisms encountered in the supersymmetry breaking problem at the global level, in supergravity models, and in superstring theory.
We review recent works on supersymmetry breaking and gauge mediation. We survey our current understanding of dynamical supersymmetry breaking mechanisms and describe new model building tools using duality, meta-stability, and stringy construction. We discuss phenomenological constraints and their solutions, paying attentions to issues with gaugino masses and electroweak symmetry breaking.
We show that small soft terms can create a supersymmetry breaking minimum along a pseudo-flat direction of a hidden sector which would otherwise be incapable of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. As this minimum lies along a pseudo-flat direction, with non-zero F- or D-terms, the resultant supersymmetry breaking in the hidden sector can be orders of magnitude greater than the soft terms which created the minimum. This opens new avenues for building models of gauge mediation, may have consequences for the cosmology of hidden sectors, and strengthens the case for multiple supersymmetry breaking…
We propose a simple and natural model of dynamical supersymmetry breaking, which could be used as a mechanism for spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in a gravitationally coupled hidden sector. The gaugino masses in the visible sector are naturally of the same size as the squark, slepton, and gravitino masses.
We study the effect of brane polarization on the supersymmetry transformations of probe anti-D3-branes at the tip of a Klebanov-Strassler throat geometry. As is well known, the probe branes can polarize into NS5-branes and decay to a supersymmetric state by brane-flux annihilation. The effective potential has a metastable minimum as long as the number of anti-D3-branes is small compared to the number of flux quanta. We study the reduced four-dimensional effective NS5-brane theory and show that in the metastable minimum supersymmetry is non-linearly realized to leading order, as expected for sp…
We show how spontaneous supersymmetry breaking in the vacuum state of higher-derivative supergravity is transmitted, as explicit soft supersymmetry-breaking terms, to the effective Lagrangian of the standard electroweak model. The general structure of the soft supersymmetry breaking terms is presented and a new scenario for understanding the gauge hierarchy problem, based on the functional form of these terms, is discussed.
We propose a supersymmetric extension of the standard model whose Higgs sector induces a spontaneous supersymmetry breaking by itself. Unlike the minimal extension, the current Higgs mass bound can be evaded even at the tree-level without the help of the soft breaking terms due to the usual hidden sector, as is reminiscent of the next to minimal case. We also have a possibly light pseudo-goldstino in our visible sector in addition to extra Higgs particles, both of which stem from supersymmetry breaking dynamics. In such a setup of visible supersymmetry breaking, we may see a part of supersymme…
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 discuss the spontaneous supersymetry breaking within the low-energy effective supergravity action of four-dimensional superstrings. In particular, we emphasize the non-universality of the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters, the $μ$-problem and the duality symmetries.
In the scenario recently proposed by Arkani and Dimopoulos, the supersymmetric scalar particles are all very heavy, at least of the order of $10^9$ GeV but the gauginos, higgsinos, and one of the neutral Higgs bosons remain under a TeV. The most distinct signature is the metastable gluino. However, the detection of metastable gluino depends crucially on the spectrum of hadrons that it fragments into. Instead, here we propose another unambiguous signature by forming the gluino-gluino bound state, gluinonium, which will then annihilate into $t\bar t$ and $b\bar b$ pairs. We study the sensitivity…
