Related papers: SUSY a consequence of smoothness?
We discuss the motivations and implications of models of low-energy supersymmetry. We present the case for the minimal supersymmetric standard model, which we define to include the minimal particle content and soft supersymmetry-breaking…
Supersymmetry (SUSY) remains one of the leading candidates for physics beyond the Standard Model, and the search for SUSY will be a central focus of future collider experiments. Complementary information on the viability and character of…
We consider four dimensional quantum field theories which have a continuous manifold of inequivalent exact ground states -- a moduli space of vacua. Classically, the singular points on the moduli space are associated with extra massless…
Supersymmetry (SUSY) helps solve the hierarchy problem in high-energy physics and provides a natural groundwork for unifying gravity with other fundamental interactions. While being one of the most promising frameworks for theories beyond…
In supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, the observed particles come in fermion-boson pairs necessary for the realization of supersymmetry (SUSY). In spite of the expected abundance of super-partners for all the known particles,…
I discuss generic consequences (sometimes called "soft predictions") of a class of background independent quantum theories of spacetime called causal spin network theories. These are theories whose kinematics and dynamics is based on the…
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…
We analyze the soft supersymmetry breaking parameters obtained in grand unified theories after integrating out the heavy GUT-states. The superfield formalism greatly simplifies the calculations and allows us to derive the low-energy…
There has been some debate as to whether the landscape does or does not predict low energy supersymmetry. We argue that under rather mild assumptions, the landscape seems to favor such breaking, quite possibly at a very low scale. Some of…
I discuss some essential features of the electroweak hierarchy problem and the ensuing motivation for weak-scale supersymmetry. Taking the hierarchy problem seriously, null results in searches for SUSY at the LHC favor specific regions of…
The observation in the universe of a small but positive vacuum energy strongly suggests, in the string landscape picture, that there will ultimately be a phase transition to an exactly supersymmetric universe. This ground state or "true…
It is pointed out that every renormalizable supersymmetric field theory has a symmetry which is hidden in plain sight, but is usually broken by soft terms which obey supersymmetry. On the other hand, the terms which break supersymmetry…
Spacetime supersymmetry is widely believed to play an important role in most fundamental theories of physics, and is usually invoked in order to address problems of naturalness. In this paper, we examine the question of whether…
We study a supersymmetric model in curved background spacetime. We calculate the effective action and the vacuum expectation value of the energy momentum tensor using a covariant regularization procedure. A soft supersymmetry breaking…
It is argued that quantum mechanics follows naturally from the assumptions that there are no fundamental causal laws but only probabilities for physical processes that are constrained by symmetries, and reality is relational in the sense…
A persistent theme in the study of dark energy is the question of whether it really exists or not. It is often claimed hat we are mis-calculating the cosmological model by neglecting the effects associated with averaging over large-scale…
Supersymmetry (SUSY) is a fascinating topic in theoretical physics, because of its unique and counterintuitive properties. It is expected to emerge as new physics beyond the standard model, and it is also a building block for supergravity…
There are many theories of quantum gravity, depending on asymptotic boundary conditions, and the amount of supersymmetry. The cosmological constant is one of the fundamental parameters that characterize different theories. If it is…
We consider the implications of some simple assumptions about the nature of the quantum theory of gravity which are plausible for a class of possible theories I have been attempting to construct. The simple assumptions turn out to have…
The ground state of string theory may lie at a point of ``maximally enhanced symmetry", at which all of the moduli transform under continuous or discrete symmetries. This hypothesis, along with the hypotheses that the theory at high…