Non-BPS Branes of Supersymmetric Brane Worlds

We consider five-dimensional brane worlds with N=2 gauged supergravity in the bulk coupled supersymmetrically to two boundary branes at the fixed points of a Z_2 symmetry. We analyse two mechanisms that break supersymmetry either by choosing flipped fermionic boundary conditions on the boundary branes or by modifying the gravitino variation to include both Z_2-odd and Z_2-even operators. In all cases we find the corresponding background. Including an even part in the gravitino variation leads to tilted branes. Choosing the flipped boundary conditions leads to AdS_4 branes and stabilized radion in the detuned case, when the expectation value of the even variation is nonzero. Another solution has the interpretation of moving AdS_4 branes separated by a horizon. The solution with moving branes separated by a horizon can be extended to the tuned case. In the presence of a horizon, temperature mediation communicates supersymmetry breakdown to the branes.Comment: 13 pages, 1 figure, Latex, typos corrected, references adde

Exotic Higgs decays in the golden channel

The Higgs boson may have decay channels that are not predicted by the Standard Model. We discuss the prospects of probing exotic Higgs decays at the LHC using the 4-lepton final state. We study two specific scenarios, with new particles appearing in the intermediate state of the 4-lepton Higgs decay. In one, Higgs decays to a Z boson and a new massive gauge boson, the so-called hidden photon. In the other, Higgs decays to an electron or a muon and a new vector-like fermion. We argue that the upcoming LHC run will be able to explore a new parameter space of these models that is allowed by current precision constraints. Employing matrix element methods, we use the full information contained in the differential distribution of the 4-lepton final state to extract the signal of exotic decays. We find that, in some cases, the LHC can be sensitive to new physics even when the correction to the total 4-lepton Higgs rate is of the order of a percent. In particular, for the simplest realization of the hidden photon with the mass between 15 and 65 GeV, new parameter space can be explored in the LHC run-II.Comment: 16 pages; v2: minor corrections, references adde

SUSY Phenomenology of KKLT Flux Compactifications

We study SUSY phenomenology of the KKLT (Kachru-Kallosh-Linde-Trivedi) scenario of string theory compactifications with fluxes. This setup leads to a specific pattern of soft masses and distinct phenomenological properties. In particular, it avoids the cosmological gravitino/moduli problems. Remarkably, the model allows for the correct abundance of SUSY dark matter consistently with all experimental constraints including the bound on the Higgs mass, b-->s gamma, etc. This occurs for both small and large tan beta, and requires the SUSY spectrum above 1 TeV.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures; v2: erratum attache

Pseudo-goldstone higgs from five dimensions

I discuss radiative generation of the higgs potential in 5D models of gauge-higgs unification.Comment: Submitted for the SUSY07 proceedings, 4 pages. v2: Eq. 25 correcte