Related papers: The Runaway Quiver
We classify possible types of pseudomoduli which arise when supersymmetry is dynamically broken in infrared-free low-energy theories. We show that, even if the pseudomoduli potential is generated only at higher loops, there is a regime…
Running couplings can be understood as arising from the spontaneous breaking of an exact scale invariance in appropriate effective theories with no dilatation anomaly. Any ordinary quantum field theory, even if it has massive fields, can be…
Superstring theories are very promising theoretically, but the enormous landscape of string vacua and the (likely) very large underlying string scale imply that they may never be tested directly. Nevertheless, concrete constructions…
We demonstrate, by giving a specific example, that supersymmetry can be left unbroken without running into conflict with observation. The key idea is to employ a discrete form of supersymmetry. Amongst other interesting features, this…
Models of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking generically have an R-symmetry, which is problematic for obtaining gaugino masses and avoiding light R-axions. The situation is improved in models of metastable supersymmetry breaking, which…
We study the nonlinear realization of supersymmetry in a dynamical/cosmological background in which derivative terms like kinetic terms are finite. Starting from linearly realized theories, we integrate out heavy modes without neglecting…
Flat directions are a generic feature of the scalar potential in supersymmetric gauge field theories. They can arise, for example, from D-terms associated with an extra abelian gauge symmetry. Even when supersymmetry is broken softly, there…
"Brane supersymmetry breaking" is a peculiar phenomenon that can occur in perturbative orientifold vacua. It results from the simultaneous presence, in the vacuum, of non-mutually BPS sets of BPS branes and orientifolds, which leave behind…
String theory avoids the ultraviolet infinities that arise in trying to quantize gravity. It is also more predictive than conventional quantum field theory, one aspect of this being the way that it contributed to the emergence of the…
Type II string theory and M-theory admit flux configurations that break supersymmetry below the Kaluza-Klein scale. These backgrounds play a central role in most models of the string landscape. I argue that the behavior of such backgrounds…
We present a theory characterizing the phases emerging as a consequence of continuous symmetry-breaking in quantum and classical systems. In symmetry-breaking phases, dynamics is restricted due to the existence of a set of conserved charges…
We propose a scenario for dynamical supersymmetry breaking in string compactifications based on geometric engineering of quiver gauge theories. In particular we show that the runaway behavior of fractional branes at del Pezzo singularities…
The region of moduli space of string theories which is most likely to describe the "real world" is where the string coupling is about unity and the volume of extra compact dimensions is about the same size as the string volume. Here we map…
We consider models of dynamical supersymmetry breaking in which the extremization of a tree-level superpotential conflicts with a quantum constraint. We show that in such models the low-energy effective theory near the origin of moduli…
We review some aspects of the dramatic consequences of supersymmetry breaking on string vacua. In particular, we focus on the issue of vacuum stability in ten-dimensional string models with broken, or without, supersymmetry, whose…
In a generic setting of Wess-Zumino models, we prove that the existence of a supersymmetric vacuum with a vanishing superpotential can be a consequence of a continuous or discrete R-symmetry when invariant fields are not less than fields…
We analyze gaugino condensation in the presence of a dilaton and an antisymmetric tensor field, with couplings reminiscent of string theories. The degrees of freedom relevant to a supersymmetric description of the effective theory below the…
We study N=1 global and local supersymmetric theories with a continuous global $U(1)_R$ symmetry as models of dynamical supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking. We introduce explicit R-symmetry breaking terms into such models, in particular a…
A supercurrent superfield whose components include a conserved energy-momentum tensor and supersymmetry current as well as a (generally broken) R-symmetry current is constructed for a generic effective N=1 supersymmetric gauge theory. The…
R-symmetries, which are needed for supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking in O'Raifeartaigh models, often lead to SUSY runaway directions trough a complexified R-transformation. Non-R symmetries also lead to runaway directions in a similar way. This…