Abstract
It is becoming increasingly clear that metastable vacua may play a prominent role in supersymmetry breaking. To date, however, this idea has been realized only in models where nonperturbative dynamics complicates the analysis of metastability. In this paper, we present a simple construction in which metastable vacua occur classically, i.e., at tree level, and in which supersymmetry breaking is sourced by both D terms and F terms. All relevant dynamics is perturbative, and hence calculations of vacuum energies and lifetimes can be performed explicitly. Moreover, we find that our construction can even give rise to multiple nonsupersymmetric vacua which are degenerate. The nontrivial vacuum structure of such models therefore suggests that they can provide a rich arena for future studies of vacuum metastability in supersymmetric field theories. Our results may also have important consequences for Z′ phenomenology and the string landscape.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Article number | 106011 |
| Journal | Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology |
| Volume | 78 |
| Issue number | 10 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Nov 20 2008 |
Fingerprint
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Nuclear and High Energy Physics
Cite this
Building a nest at tree level : Classical metastability and nontrivial vacuum structure in supersymmetric field theories. / Dienes, Keith R; Thomas, Brooks.
In: Physical Review D - Particles, Fields, Gravitation and Cosmology, Vol. 78, No. 10, 106011, 20.11.2008.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Building a nest at tree level
T2 - Classical metastability and nontrivial vacuum structure in supersymmetric field theories
AU - Dienes, Keith R
AU - Thomas, Brooks
PY - 2008/11/20
Y1 - 2008/11/20
N2 - It is becoming increasingly clear that metastable vacua may play a prominent role in supersymmetry breaking. To date, however, this idea has been realized only in models where nonperturbative dynamics complicates the analysis of metastability. In this paper, we present a simple construction in which metastable vacua occur classically, i.e., at tree level, and in which supersymmetry breaking is sourced by both D terms and F terms. All relevant dynamics is perturbative, and hence calculations of vacuum energies and lifetimes can be performed explicitly. Moreover, we find that our construction can even give rise to multiple nonsupersymmetric vacua which are degenerate. The nontrivial vacuum structure of such models therefore suggests that they can provide a rich arena for future studies of vacuum metastability in supersymmetric field theories. Our results may also have important consequences for Z′ phenomenology and the string landscape.
AB - It is becoming increasingly clear that metastable vacua may play a prominent role in supersymmetry breaking. To date, however, this idea has been realized only in models where nonperturbative dynamics complicates the analysis of metastability. In this paper, we present a simple construction in which metastable vacua occur classically, i.e., at tree level, and in which supersymmetry breaking is sourced by both D terms and F terms. All relevant dynamics is perturbative, and hence calculations of vacuum energies and lifetimes can be performed explicitly. Moreover, we find that our construction can even give rise to multiple nonsupersymmetric vacua which are degenerate. The nontrivial vacuum structure of such models therefore suggests that they can provide a rich arena for future studies of vacuum metastability in supersymmetric field theories. Our results may also have important consequences for Z′ phenomenology and the string landscape.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=57149124772&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=57149124772&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevD.78.106011
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevD.78.106011
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:57149124772
VL - 78
JO - Physical review D: Particles and fields
JF - Physical review D: Particles and fields
SN - 0556-2821
IS - 10
M1 - 106011
ER -