Related papers: On Nonstandard Vacuua in Minimal Supergravity Mode…
We consider the renormalisation of a softly-broken supersymmetric theory with singlet fields and a superpotential with a linear term. We show that there exist exact beta-functions for both the linear term in the superpotential and the…
While supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model can be fully described in terms of explicitly broken global supersymmetry, this description is only effective. Once related to spontaneous breaking in a more fundamental theory, the…
We show that supersymmetric Abelian models that are obtained from deformations of those with ${\cal N}=2$ supersymmetry also contain metastable vacua for a wide range of parameters. The deformations we consider are combinations of masses…
A new approach to vacuum decay in quantum field theory, based on a simple variational formulation in field space using a tunneling potential, is ideally suited to study the effects of gravity on such decays. The method allows to prove in…
Attempts to solve naturalness by having the weak scale as the only breaking of classical scale invariance have to deal with two severe difficulties: gravity and the absence of Landau poles. We show that solutions to the first problem…
We study a set of asymmetric deformations of non-critical superstring theories in various dimensions. The deformations arise as Kaehler and complex structure deformations of an orthogonal two-torus comprising of a parallel and a transverse…
We address two closely related problems associated with the singlet scalars' potential that are often present in supersymmetric U(1)' models, especially those which maintain the gauge unification of the MSSM in a simple way. The first is…
We study the vacua of an $SU(3)\times SU(3)$-symmetric model with a bifundamental scalar. Structures of this type appear in various gauge theories such as the Renormalizable Coloron Model, which is an extension of QCD, or the Trinification…
We give evidence that supersymmetric anti-de Sitter vacua of five-dimensional supergravity cannot be scale separated as a consequence of quantum gravity constraints, such as the weak gravity conjecture or the species scale. We show this in…
We analyze the scalar potentials of maximal gauged three-dimensional supergravities which reveal a surprisingly rich structure. In contrast to maximal supergravities in dimensions D>3, all these theories admit a maximally supersymmetric…
We consider a formalism to describe the false-vacuum decay of a scalar field in gauge theories in non-perturbative regimes. We find that the larger the gauge coupling with respect to the self-coupling of the scalar, the shallower the local…
We study the conditions under which a generic supergravity model involving chiral and vector multiplets can admit vacua with spontaneously broken supersymmetry and realistic cosmological constant. We find that the existence of such viable…
Scalar fields with inverse power-law effective potentials may provide a negative pressure component to the energy density of the universe today, as required by cosmological observations. In order to be cosmologically relevant today, the…
The scalar potential of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) admits the existence of vacua with non-vanishing expectation values of electrically and color charged fields. If such minima are deep enough, the physical electroweak…
We consider the case of several scalar fields, charged under a number of U(1) factors, acquiring vacuum expectation values due to an anomalous U(1). We demonstrate how to make redefinitions at the superfield level in order to account for…
The minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) with universal soft breaking terms has a negligible effect on the rare $c\to u\gamma$ decay rate. We therefore study a general model with non-universal soft breaking terms constrained by…
We consider theories in which the Standard Model gauge fields propagate in extra dimensions whose size is around the electroweak scale. The Standard Model quarks and leptons may either be localized to a brane or propagate in the bulk. This…
After an introduction recalling the theoretical motivation for low energy (100 GeV to TeV scale) supersymmetry, this review describes the theory and experimental implications of the soft supersymmetry-breaking Lagrangian of the general…
A new viewpoint for the gauge hierarchy problem is proposed: compactification at a large scale, 1/R, leads to a low energy effective theory with supersymmetry softly broken at a much lower scale, \alpha/R. The hierarchy is induced by an…
In supersymmetric models with scalar sequestering, superconformal strong dynamics in the hidden sector suppresses the low-energy couplings of mass dimension two, compared to the squares of the dimension one parameters. Taking into account…