Related papers: Superconformal Symmetry, Supergravity and Cosmolog…
The $N=1$ supersymmetric Born-Infeld theory coupled to $N=1$ supergravity in four spacetime dimensions is studied in the presence of a cosmological term with spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. The consistency is achieved by compensating a…
As an extension of the recent construction of generalised Fayet-Iliopoulos terms in ${\cal N}=1$ supergravity given in [1], we present self-interactions for a vector multiplet coupled to conformal supergravity. They are used to construct…
We discuss models where N=1 global supersymmetry is spontaneously broken, at the classical level, in the presence of non-anomalous gauge interactions. We take such models as effective theories, valid up to some suitable scale and arising…
We identify a particularly simple class of supergravity models describing superconformal coupling of matter to supergravity. In these models, which we call the canonical superconformal supergravity (CSS) models, the kinetic terms in the…
In the superconformal formulation of supergravity, the standard supergravity action appears as a result of spontaneous symmetry breaking when the conformal compensator scalar field, the conformon, acquires a nonzero value, giving rise to…
We propose a supersymmetrisation of the cosmological constant in ordinary $N=1$ supergravity that breaks supersymmetry spontaneously by a constant Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) term associated to a $U(1)$ symmetry. This term is a variation of a new…
The simplest examples of gauged supergravities are N=1 or N=2 theories with Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms. FI terms in supergravity imply that the R-symmetry is gauged. Also the U(1) or SU(2) local symmetries of Kaehler and…
A model describing the $N=2$ supergravity interaction with vector and linear multiplets is constructed. It admits the introduction of the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry with arbitrary scales, one of which may be equal to zero, which…
Supergravity, a locally supersymmetric gauge theory, may provide to describe new physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). In this sense, cosmological applications of supergravity can be the arena for probing outcomes of supergravity. It is…
We construct inflationary models in the context of supergravity with orthogonal nilpotent superfields [1]. When local supersymmetry is gauge-fixed in the unitary gauge, these models describe theories with only a single real scalar (the…
We construct a supergravity-Maxwell theory with a novel embedding of the Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term, leading to spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. The gauging of the R-symmetry is not required and a gravitino mass is allowed for a generic…
On the occasion of a century from the proposal of General relativity by Einstein, I attempt to tackle some open issues in modern cosmology, via a toy but non-trivial model. Specifically, I would like to link together: (i) the smallness of…
We review the new theory of modified supergravity, dubbed F(\cal R) supergravity, and some of its recent applications to inflation and reheating in the early universe cosmology. The F(\cal R) supergravity is the N=1 locally supersymmetric…
We analyze the relation between rigid and local supersymmetric N=2 field theories, when half of the supersymmetries are spontaneously broken. In particular, we show that the recently found partial supersymmety breaking induced by electric…
We present a novel theory of the very early universe which addresses the traditional horizon and flatness problems of big bang cosmology and predicts a scale invariant spectrum of perturbations. Unlike inflation, this scenario requires no…
Motivated by dualistic considerations of the reality of quark condensation in quantum chromodynamics, and the connections of supergravity to the exotic physics of string and M-theory, in this thesis we investigate the dynamical breaking of…
We reconsider a gauge theory of gravity in which the gauge group is the conformal group SO(4,2) and the action is of the Yang-Mills form, quadratic in the curvature. The resulting gravitational theory exhibits local conformal symmetry and…
We propose a simple model of dynamical supersymmetry breaking in the context of minimal supergravity with gauged $U(1)_R$ symmetry. The model is based on the gauge group $SU(2) \times U(1)_R$ with three matters. Since the $U(1)_R$ symmetry…
We investigate the production of gravitinos in a cosmological background. Gravitinos can be produced during preheating after inflation due to a combined effect of interactions with an oscillating inflaton field and absence of conformal…
We review work on the formation of gravitino condensates via the super-Higgs effect in the early Universe. This is a scenario for both inflating the early universe and breaking local supersymmetry (supergravity), entirely independent of any…