Inflation, moduli (de)stabilization and supersymmetry breaking

We study the cosmological inflation from the viewpoint of the moduli stabilization. We study the scenario that the superpotential has a large value during the inflation era enough to stabilize moduli, but it is small in the true vacuum. This scenario is discussed by using a simple model, one type of hybrid models.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figure

Volume modulus inflection point inflation and the gravitino mass problem

Several models of inflection point inflation with the volume modulus as the inflaton are investigated. Non-perturbative superpotentials containing two gaugino condensation terms or one such term with threshold corrections are considered. It is shown that the gravitino mass may be much smaller than the Hubble scale during inflation if at least one of the non-perturbative terms has a positive exponent. Higher order corrections to the Kahler potential have to be taken into account in such models. Those corrections are used to stabilize the potential in the axion direction in the vicinity of the inflection point. Models with only negative exponents require uplifting and in consequence have the supersymmetry breaking scale higher than the inflation scale. Fine-tuning of parameters and initial conditions is analyzed in some detail for both types of models. It is found that fine-tuning of parameters in models with heavy gravitino is much stronger than in models with light gravitino. It is shown that recently proposed time dependent potentials can provide a solution to the problem of the initial conditions only in models with heavy gravitino. Such potentials can not be used to relax fine tuning of parameters in any model because this would lead to values of the spectral index well outside the experimental bounds.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, comments and references added, version to be publishe

Study of shock waves generation, hot electron production and role of parametric instabilities in an intensity regime relevant for the shock ignition

We present experimental results at intensities relevant to Shock Ignition obtained at the sub-ns Prague Asterix Laser System in 2012 . We studied shock waves produced by laser-matter interaction in presence of a pre-plasma. We used a first beam at 1ω (1315 nm) at 7 × 10 13 W/cm 2 to create a pre-plasma on the front side of the target and a second at 3ω (438 nm) at ∼ 10 16 W/cm 2 to create the shock wave. Multilayer targets composed of 25 (or 40 μm) of plastic (doped with Cl), 5 μm of Cu (for Kα diagnostics) and 20 μm of Al for shock measurement were used. We used X-ray spectroscopy of Cl to evaluate the plasma temperature, Kα imaging and spectroscopy to evaluate spatial and spectral properties of the fast electrons and a streak camera for shock breakout measurements. Parametric instabilities (Stimulated Raman Scattering, Stimulated Brillouin Scattering and Two Plasmon Decay) were studied by collecting the back scattered light and analysing its spectrum. Back scattered energy was measured with calorimeters. To evaluate the maximum pressure reached in our experiment we performed hydro simulations with CHIC and DUED codes. The maximum shock pressure generated in our experiment at the front side of the target during laser-interaction is 90 Mbar. The conversion efficiency into hot electrons was estimated to be of the order of ∼ 0.1% and their mean energy in the order ∼50 keV. Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distributio

Kahler Moduli Inflation Revisited

We perform a detailed numerical analysis of inflationary solutions in Kahler moduli of type IIB flux compactifications. We show that there are inflationary solutions even when all the fields play an important role in the overall shape of the scalar potential. Moreover, there exists a direction of attraction for the inflationary trajectories that correspond to the constant volume direction. This basin of attraction enables the system to have an island of stability in the set of initial conditions. We provide explicit examples of these trajectories, compute the corresponding tilt of the density perturbations power spectrum and show that they provide a robust prediction of n_s approximately 0.96 for 60 e-folds of inflation.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figure

Enhanced Higgs associated production with a top quark pair in the NMSSM with light singlets

Precision measurements of the 125 GeV Higgs resonance recently discovered at the LHC have determined that its properties are similar to the ones of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson. However, the current uncertainties in the determination of the Higgs boson couplings leave room for significant deviations from the SM expectations. In fact, if one assumes no correlation between the top-quark and gluon couplings to the Higgs, the current global fit to the Higgs data lead to central values of the Higgs couplings to the bottom-quark and the top-quark that are about 2 $\sigma$ away from the SM predictions. In a previous work, we showed that such a scenario could be realized in the Next to Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the SM (NMSSM), for heavy singlets and light MSSM-like Higgs bosons and scalar top quarks, but for couplings that ruined the perturbative consistency of the theory up to the GUT scale. In this work we show that a perturbative consistent scenario, for somewhat heavier stops, may be obtained in the presence of light singlets. An interesting bonus of this scenario is the possibility of explaining an excess of events observed in CP-even Higgs searches at LEP2.Comment: 17 pages; v2: discussion on unphysical global minima and new benchmark table added; matches published versio

Yukawa-unified natural supersymmetry

Previous work on t-b-\tau Yukawa-unified supersymmetry, as expected from SUSY GUT theories based on the gauge group SO(10), tended to have exceedingly large electroweak fine-tuning (EWFT). Here, we examine supersymmetric models where we simultaneously require low EWFT ("natural SUSY") and a high degree of Yukawa coupling unification, along with a light Higgs scalar with m_h\sim125 GeV. As Yukawa unification requires large tan\beta\sim50, while EWFT requires rather light third generation squarks and low \mu\sim100-250 GeV, B-physics constraints from BR(B\to X_s\gamma) and BR(B_s\to \mu+\mu-) can be severe. We are able to find models with EWFT \Delta\lesssim 50-100 (better than 1-2% EWFT) and with Yukawa unification as low as R_yuk\sim1.3 (30% unification) if B-physics constraints are imposed. This may be improved to R_yuk\sim1.2 if additional small flavor violating terms conspire to improve accord with B-constraints. We present several Yukawa-unified natural SUSY (YUNS) benchmark points. LHC searches will be able to access gluinos in the lower 1-2 TeV portion of their predicted mass range although much of YUNS parameter space may lie beyond LHC14 reach. If heavy Higgs bosons can be accessed at a high rate, then the rare H, A\to \mu+\mu- decay might allow a determination of tan\beta\sim50 as predicted by YUNS models. Finally, the predicted light higgsinos should be accessible to a linear e+e- collider with \sqrt{s}\sim0.5 TeV.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, pdflatex; 3 references adde

The effective theory of type IIA AdS4 compactifications on nilmanifolds and cosets

We consider string theory compactifications of the form AdS4 x M6 with orientifold six-planes, where M6 is a six-dimensional compact space that is either a nilmanifold or a coset. For all known solutions of this type we obtain the four-dimensional N=1 low energy effective theory by computing the superpotential, the Kaehler potential and the mass spectrum for the light moduli. For the nilmanifold examples we perform a cross-check on the result for the mass spectrum by calculating it alternatively from a direct Kaluza-Klein reduction and find perfect agreement. We show that in all but one of the coset models all moduli are stabilized at the classical level. As an application we show that all but one of the coset models can potentially be used to bypass a recent no-go theorem against inflation in type IIA theory.Comment: 47 pages main text, 28 pages appendix, 3 tables, 7 figures, v2: added references, corrected typo

An Alternative Yukawa Unified SUSY Scenario

Supersymmetric SO(10) Grand Unified Theories with Yukawa unification represent an appealing possibility for physics beyond the Standard Model. However Yukawa unification is made difficult by large threshold corrections to the bottom mass. Generally one is led to consider models where the sfermion masses are large in order to suppress these corrections. Here we present another possibility, in which the top and bottom GUT scale Yukawa couplings are equal to a component of the charged lepton Yukawa matrix at the GUT scale in a basis where this matrix is not diagonal. Physically, this weak eigenstate Yukawa unification scenario corresponds to the case where the charged leptons that are in the 16 of SO(10) containing the top and bottom quarks mix with their counterparts in another SO(10) multiplet. Diagonalizing the resulting Yukawa matrix introduces mixings in the neutrino sector. Specifically we find that for a large region of parameter space with relatively light sparticles, and which has not been ruled out by current LHC or other data, the mixing induced in the neutrino sector is such that $sin^2 2\Theta_{23} \approx 1$, in agreement with data. The phenomenological implications are analyzed in some detail.Comment: 32 pages, 22 Figure

Volume Modulus Inflation and the Gravitino Mass Problem

The Hubble constant during the last stages of inflation in a broad class of models based on the KKLT mechanism should be smaller than the gravitino mass, H <~ m_{3/2}. We point out that in the models with large volume of compactification the corresponding constraint typically is even stronger, H <~ m_{3/2}^{3/2}, in Planck units. In order to address this problem, we propose a class of models with large volume of compactification where inflation may occur exponentially far away from the present vacuum state. In these models, the Hubble constant during inflation can be many orders of magnitude greater than the gravitino mass. We introduce a toy model describing this scenario, and discuss its strengths and weaknesses.Comment: 24 pages, JHEP style; v2. refs adde

Many faces of low mass neutralino dark matter in the unconstrained MSSM, LHC data and new signals

If all strongly interacting sparticles (the squarks and the gluinos) in an unconstrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) are heavier than the corresponding mass lower limits in the minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) model, obtained by the current LHC experiments, then the existing data allow a variety of electroweak (EW) sectors with light sparticles yielding dark matter (DM) relic density allowed by the WMAP data. Some of the sparticles may lie just above the existing lower bounds from LEP and lead to many novel DM producing mechanisms not common in mSUGRA. This is illustrated by revisiting the above squark-gluino mass limits obtained by the ATLAS Collaboration, with an unconstrained EW sector with masses not correlated with the strong sector. Using their selection criteria and the corresponding cross section limits, we find at the generator level using Pythia, that the changes in the mass limits, if any, are by at most 10-12% in most scenarios. In some cases, however, the relaxation of the gluino mass limits are larger ($\approx 20$). If a subset of the strongly interacting sparticles in an unconstrained MSSM are within the reach of the LHC, then signals sensitive to the EW sector may be obtained. This is illustrated by simulating the $blj$\etslash, $l= e and \mu$, and $b\tau j$\etslash signals in i) the light stop scenario and ii) the light stop-gluino scenario with various light EW sectors allowed by the WMAP data. Some of the more general models may be realized with non-universal scalar and gaugino masses.Comment: 27 pages, 1 figure, references added, minor changes in text, to appear in JHE