10 research outputs found
Astrophysical and Cosmological Implications of Large Volume String Compactifications
We study the spectrum, couplings and cosmological and astrophysical
implications of the moduli fields for the class of Calabi-Yau IIB string
compactifications for which moduli stabilisation leads to an exponentially
large volume V ~ 10^{15} l_s^6 and an intermediate string scale m_s ~
10^{11}GeV, with TeV-scale observable supersymmetry breaking. All K\"ahler
moduli except for the overall volume are heavier than the susy breaking scale,
with m ~ ln(M_P/m_{3/2}) m_{3/2} ~ (\ln(M_P/m_{3/2}))^2 m_{susy} ~ 500 TeV and,
contrary to standard expectations, have matter couplings suppressed only by the
string scale rather than the Planck scale. These decay to matter early in the
history of the universe, with a reheat temperature T ~ 10^7 GeV, and are free
from the cosmological moduli problem (CMP). The heavy moduli have a branching
ratio to gravitino pairs of 10^{-30} and do not suffer from the gravitino
overproduction problem. The overall volume modulus is a distinctive feature of
these models and is an M_{planck}-coupled scalar of mass m ~ 1 MeV and subject
to the CMP. A period of thermal inflation can help relax this problem. This
field has a lifetime ~ 10^{24}s and can contribute to dark matter. It may be
detected through its decays to 2\gamma or e^+e^-. If accessible the e^+e^-
decay mode dominates, with Br(\chi \to 2 \gamma) suppressed by a factor
(ln(M_P/m_{3/2}))^2. We consider the potential for detection of this field
through different astrophysical sources and find that the observed gamma-ray
background constrains \Omega_{\chi} <~ 10^{-4}. The decays of this field may
generate the 511 keV emission line from the galactic centre observed by
INTEGRAL/SPI.Comment: 31 pages, 2 figures; v2. refs adde
Sparticle Spectra and LHC Signatures for Large Volume String Compactifications
We study the supersymmetric particle spectra and LHC collider observables for
the large-volume string models with a fundamental scale of 10^{11} GeV that
arise in moduli-fixed string compactifications with branes and fluxes. The
presence of magnetic fluxes on the brane world volume, required for chirality,
perturb the soft terms away from those previously computed in the dilute-flux
limit. We use the difference in high-scale gauge couplings to estimate the
magnitude of this perturbation and study the potential effects of the magnetic
fluxes by generating many random spectra with the soft terms perturbed around
the dilute flux limit. Even with a 40% variation in the high-scale soft terms
the low-energy spectra take a clear and predictive form. The resulting spectra
are broadly similar to those arising on the SPS1a slope, but more degenerate.
In their minimal version the models predict the ratios of gaugino masses to be
M_1 : M_2 : M_3=(1.5 - 2) : 2 : 6, different to both mSUGRA and mirage
mediation. Among the scalars, the squarks tend to be lighter and the sleptons
heavier than for comparable mSUGRA models. We generate 10 fb^{-1} of sample LHC
data for the random spectra in order to study the range of collider
phenomenology that can occur. We perform a detailed mass reconstruction on one
example large-volume string model spectrum. 100 fb^{-1} of integrated
luminosity is sufficient to discriminate the model from mSUGRA and aspects of
the sparticle spectrum can be accurately reconstructed.Comment: 42 pages, 21 figures. Added references and discussion for section 3.
Slight changes in the tex
Warped Supersymmetry Breaking
We address the size of supersymmetry-breaking effects within
higher-dimensional settings where the observable sector resides deep within a
strongly warped region, with supersymmetry breaking not necessarily localized
in that region. Our particular interest is in how the supersymmetry-breaking
scale seen by the observable sector depends on this warping. We obtain this
dependence in two ways: by computing within the microscopic (string) theory
supersymmetry-breaking masses in supermultiplets; and by investigating how
warping gets encoded into masses within the low-energy 4D effective theory. We
find that the lightest gravitino mode can have mass much less than the
straightforward estimate from the mass shift of the unwarped zero mode. This
lightest Kaluza-Klein excitation plays the role of the supersymmetric partner
of the graviton and has a warped mass m_{3/2} proportional to e^A, with e^A the
warp factor, and controls the size of the soft SUSY breaking terms. We
formulate the conditions required for the existence of a description in terms
of a 4D SUGRA formulation, or in terms of 4D SUGRA together with soft-breaking
terms, and describe in particular situations where neither exist for some
non-supersymmetric compactifications. We suggest that some effects of warping
are captured by a linear dependence in the Kahler potential. We outline
some implications of our results for the KKLT scenario of moduli stabilization
with broken SUSY.Comment: 34 pages, 1 figure. v2 Further discussion of dual interpretation and
gravitino mas
Moduli Stabilization in Brane Gas Cosmology with Superpotentials
In the context of brane gas cosmology in superstring theory, we show why it
is impossible to simultaneously stabilize the dilaton and the radion with a
general gas of strings (including massless modes) and D-branes. Although this
requires invoking a different mechanism to stabilize these moduli fields, we
find that the brane gas can still play a crucial role in the early universe in
assisting moduli stabilization. We show that a modest energy density of
specific types of brane gas can solve the overshoot problem that typically
afflicts potentials arising from gaugino condensation.Comment: minor changes to match the journal versio
Large-Volume Flux Compactifications: Moduli Spectrum and D3/D7 Soft Supersymmetry Breaking
We present an explicit calculation of the spectrum of a general class of
string models, corresponding to Calabi-Yau flux compactifications with
h_{1,2}>h_{1,1}>1 with leading perturbative and non-perturbative corrections,
in which all geometric moduli are stabilised as in hep-th/0502058. The volume
is exponentially large, leading to a range of string scales from the Planck
mass to the TeV scale, realising for the first time the large extra dimensions
scenario in string theory. We provide a general analysis of the relevance of
perturbative and non-perturbative effects and the regime of validity of the
effective field theory. We compute the spectrum in the moduli sector finding a
hierarchy of masses depending on inverse powers of the volume. We also compute
soft supersymmetry breaking terms for particles living on D3 and D7 branes. We
find a hierarchy of soft terms corresponding to `volume dominated' F-term
supersymmetry breaking. F-terms for Kahler moduli dominate both those for
dilaton and complex structure moduli and D-terms or other de Sitter lifting
terms. This is the first class of string models in which soft supersymmetry
breaking terms are computed after fixing all geometric moduli. We outline
several possible applications of our results, both for cosmology and
phenomenology and point out the differences with the less generic KKLT vacua.Comment: 64 pages, 4 figures; v2. references added; v3. typos, reference
added, matches published versio
Accidental Inflation in String Theory
We show that inflation in type IIB string theory driven by the volume modulus
can be realized in the context of the racetrack-based Kallosh-Linde model (KL)
of moduli stabilization. Inflation here arises through the volume modulus
slow-rolling down from a flat hill-top or inflection point of the scalar
potential. This situation can be quite generic in the landscape, where by
uplifting one of the two adjacent minima one can turn the barrier either to a
flat saddle point or to an inflection point supporting eternal inflation. The
resulting spectral index is tunable in the range of 0.93 < n_s < 1, and there
is only negligible production of primordial gravitational waves r < 10^{-6}.
The flatness of the potential in this scenario requires fine-tuning, which may
be justified taking into account the exponential reward by volume factors
preferring the regions of the universe with the maximal amount of slow-roll
inflation. This consideration leads to a tentative prediction of the spectral
index or depending on whether the
potential has a symmetry phi -> - phi or not.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures, LaTeX, uses RevTex
LHC String Phenomenology
We argue that it is possible to address the deeper LHC Inverse Problem, to
gain insight into the underlying theory from LHC signatures of new physics. We
propose a technique which may allow us to distinguish among, and favor or
disfavor, various classes of underlying theoretical constructions using
(assumed) new physics signals at the LHC. We think that this can be done with
limited data , and improved with more data. This is because of
two reasons -- a) it is possible in many cases to reliably go from
(semi)realistic microscopic string construction to the space of experimental
observables, say, LHC signatures. b) The patterns of signatures at the LHC are
sensitive to the structure of the underlying theoretical constructions. We
illustrate our approach by analyzing two promising classes of string
compactifications along with six other string-motivated constructions. Even
though these constructions are not complete, they illustrate the point we want
to emphasize. We think that using this technique effectively over time can
eventually help us to meaningfully connect experimental data to microscopic
theory.Comment: 50 Pages, 13 Figures, 3 Tables, v2: minor changes, references adde
Towards an Explicit Model of D-brane Inflation
We present a detailed analysis of an explicit model of warped D-brane
inflation, incorporating the effects of moduli stabilization. We consider the
potential for D3-brane motion in a warped conifold background that includes
fluxes and holomorphically-embedded D7-branes involved in moduli stabilization.
Although the D7-branes significantly modify the inflaton potential, they do not
correct the quadratic term in the potential, and hence do not cause a uniform
change in the slow-roll parameter eta. Nevertheless, we present a simple
example based on the Kuperstein embedding of D7-branes, z_1=constant, in which
the potential can be fine-tuned to be sufficiently flat for inflation. To
derive this result, it is essential to incorporate the fact that the
compactification volume changes slightly as the D3-brane moves. We stress that
the compactification geometry dictates certain relationships among the
parameters in the inflaton Lagrangian, and these microscopic constraints impose
severe restrictions on the space of possible models. We note that the shape of
the final inflaton potential differs from projections given in earlier studies:
in configurations where inflation occurs, it does so near an inflection point.
Finally, we comment on the difficulty of making precise cosmological
predictions in this scenario. This is the companion paper to arXiv:0705.3837.Comment: 68 pages, 6 figures; v2: fixed typos, added refs and clarifications;
v3: expanded discussion of inflection point inflatio