Related papers: Millimetre-Range Forces in Superstring Theories wi…
We consider the problem of supersymmetry and electroweak breaking in a 5d theory compactified on an $S^{1}/Z_{2}$ orbifold, where the extra dimension may be large or small. We consider the case of a supersymmetry breaking 4d brane located…
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) $\Lambda$ are to be…
If nature is described by string theory, and if the compactification radius is large (as suggested by the unification of couplings), then the theory is in a regime best described by the low energy limit of $M$-theory. We discuss some…
We study a supergravity model of inflation with R-symmetry and a single scalar field, the inflaton, slowly rolling away from the origin. The scales of inflation can be as low as the supersymmetry breaking scale of 10^10 GeV or even the…
The physical motivations and the basic construction rules for Type I strings and M-theory compactifications are reviewed in light of the recent developments. The first part contains the basic theoretical ingredients needed for building…
The apparent finding of a 125-GeV light Higgs boson closes unitarity of the minimal Standard Model (SM), that is weakly interacting: this is an exceptional feature not generally true if new physics exists beyond the mass gap found at the…
We study a theory where the presence of an extra spin-two field coupled to gravity gives rise to a phase with spontaneously broken Lorentz symmetry. In this phase gravity is massive, and the Weak Equivalence Principle is respected. The…
Supersymmetry broken geometrically in extra dimensions naturally leads to a nearly degenerate spectrum for superparticles, ameliorating the bounds from the current searches at the LHC. We present a minimal such model with a single extra…
We show that simultaneous gauge and supersymmetry breaking can be induced by radiative corrections, a la Coleman-Weinberg. When a certain correlation among the superpotential parameters is present, a local supersymmetry-breaking minimum is…
The lack of evidence for new physics beyond the standard model at the LHC points to a paucity of new particles near the weak scale. This suggests that the weak scale is tuned and that supersymmetry, if present at all, is realized at higher…
We discuss the flavor structure of soft supersymmetry breaking parameters in 5-dimensional orbifold field theories in which N=1 supersymmetry is broken by the Scherk-Schwarz boundary condition and hierarchical 4-dimensional Yukawa couplings…
Scale invariant theories which contain (in $4-D$) a four index field strength are considered. The integration of the equations of motion of these $4-index$ field strength gives rise to scale symmetry breaking. The phenomena of mass…
We show that the isometries of the manifold of scalars in $N=2$ supergravity in $d=5$ space-time dimensions can be broken by the supergravity interactions. The opposite conclusion holds for the dimensionally reduced $d=4$ theories, where…
Supersymmetric ground state wave functions of a model of supersymmetric quantum mechanics on $S^1$ (supersymmetric simple pendulum) are studied. Supersymmetry can be broken due to the existence of an undetermined parameter, which is…
Type I string theory in the presence of internal magnetic fields provides a concrete realization of split supersymmetry. To lowest order, gauginos are massless while squarks and sleptons are superheavy. For weak magnetic fields, the correct…
I discuss possible modifications of gravitation at short distances in string theories with large internal dimensions and low string scale. The modifications are due to the change of Newton's law in the presence of (sub)millimeter-size…
We discuss the possible applications of string theory for the construction of generalizations of the $SU(3)\times SU(2)\times U(1)$ standard model of strong and electroweak interactions. This includes an investigation of effective $d=4$…
Standard lore asserts that quantum effects generically forbid the occurrence of light (non-pseudo-Goldstone) scalars having masses smaller than the Kaluza Klein scale, M_KK, in extra-dimensional models, or the gravitino mass, M_3/2, in…
We find the bosonic sector of the gauged supergravities that are obtained from 11-dimensional supergravity by Scherk-Schwarz dimensional reduction with flux to any dimension D. We show that, if certain obstructions are absent, the…
After discussing alternative scenarios for the origins of the electroweak symmetry breaking, I briefly review the experimental status of the Standard Model. I explore further both the hints for, and constraints on, supposing that that a…