Related papers: The Small $E_8$ Instanton and the Kraft Procesi Tr…
We explore the geometrical structure of Higgs branches of quantum field theories with 8 supercharges in 3, 4, 5 and 6 dimensions. They are symplectic singularities, and as such admit a decomposition (or foliation) into so-called symplectic…
Recent work on adding flavour to the generalized AdS/CFT correspondence is reviewed. In particular, we consider instanton configurations on two coincident D7 brane probes. These are matched to the Higgs branch of the dual field theory. In…
Moduli spaces of a large set of $3d$ $\mathcal{N}=4$ effective gauge theories are known to be closures of nilpotent orbits. This set of theories has recently acquired a special status, due to Namikawa's theorem. As a consequence of this…
We analyze the one-loop ultraviolet sensitivity of the Higgs mass in a five-dimensional supersymmetric theory compactified on the orbifold S^1/Z_2, with superpotential localized on a fixed-point brane. Four-dimensional supersymmetry is…
In the four-dimensional supersymmetric standard model extended with gauge singlets the lightest Higgs boson mass, $M_H$, has an important contribution proportional to the squared of the superpotential coupling $\lambda$ of singlets to Higgs…
In this work, we explore the flavour changing decays $H_i \to b s$ in a general supersymmetric scenario. In these models, the flavour changing decays arise at loop-level but, originating from a dimension-four operator, do not decouple and…
We consider a model based on the supersymmetric QCD theory with N_c=2 and N_f=3. The theory is strongly coupled at the infrared scale \Lambda_H. Its low energy effective theory below \Lambda_H is described by the supersymmetric standard…
We describe configurations of 5-branes and 7-branes which realize, when compactified on a circle, new isolated four-dimensional N=2 superconformal field theories recently constructed by Gaiotto. Our diagrammatic method allows to easily…
We study supergravity models in four dimensions where the hidden sector is superconformal and strongly-coupled over several decades of energy below the Planck scale, before undergoing spontaneous breakdown of scale invariance and…
The phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking admits a physical interpretation in terms of the Bose-condensation process of elementary spinless quanta. In this picture, the broken-symmetry phase emerges as a real physical medium, endowed…
We interpret reported hints of a Standard Model Higgs boson at ~ 125 GeV in terms of high-scale supersymmetry breaking with a shift symmetry in the Higgs sector. More specifically, the Higgs mass range suggested by recent LHC data…
We perform an explicit two-loop computation of the Higgs mass in a five-dimensional supersymmetric theory compactified on the orbifold S^1/Z_2, with superpotential localized on a fixed-point brane and supersymmetry broken in the bulk of the…
The small instanton transition of a five-brane colliding with one end of the S1/Z2 interval in heterotic M-theory is discussed, with emphasis on the transition moduli, their potential function and the associated non-perturbative…
Recent work on 6D superconformal field theories (SCFTs) has established an intricate correspondence between certain Higgs branch deformations and nilpotent orbits of flavor symmetry algebras associated with T-branes. In this paper, we…
We consider the 5-brane placed at one end of the world in the Heterotic $E_8 \times E_8$ theory. The low energy theory is a 6 dimensional $(1,0)$ superconformal theory with $E_8$ as a global symmetry. We calculate the two-point correlator…
A three-dimensional $\mathcal{N}=4$ gauge theory is constructed whose Higgs branch realizes the affine closure of the cotangent bundle of the minimal nilpotent orbit of $\mathfrak{sl}_n$. This space is a symplectic singularity recently…
We present the supersymmetric extension of the recently constructed E$_{8(8)}$ exceptional field theory -- the manifestly U-duality covariant formulation of the untruncated ten- and eleven-dimensional supergravities. This theory is…
We continue the analysis of the possibility of supersymmetric $E_8$ as a family unification and grand unification theory, this time under the assumption that there is a vacuum gluino condensate, but that this condensate is {\it not}…
We present a non-perturbative model of Gauge-Higgs Unification. We consider a five-dimensional pure SU(2) gauge theory with orbifold boundary conditions along the fifth dimension, such that the symmetry is reduced to U(1) at the fixed…
We propose a simple gauge extension of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), where the fine tuning in the Higgs mass parameters is highly reduced. The Higgs boson is insensitive to high energies because of supersymmetry and also…