Light third-generation squarks from flavour gauge messengers

We study models of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking with a gauged horizontal SU(3)_F symmetry acting on the quark superfields. If SU(3)_F is broken non-supersymmetrically by F-term vacuum expectation values, the massive gauge bosons and gauginos become messengers for SUSY breaking mediation. These gauge messenger fields induce a flavour-dependent, negative contribution to the soft masses of the squarks at one loop. In combination with the soft terms from standard gauge mediation, one obtains large and degenerate first- and second-generation squark masses, while the stops and sbottoms are light. We discuss the implications of this mechanism for the superparticle spectrum and for flavour precision observables. We also provide an explicit realization in a model with simultaneous SUSY and SU(3)_F breaking.Comment: 25 pages, 7 figure

The Flavour of Natural SUSY

An inverted mass hierarchy in the squark sector, as in so-called "natural supersymmetry", requires non-universal boundary conditions at the mediation scale of supersymmetry breaking. We propose a formalism to define such boundary conditions in a basis-independent manner and apply it to generic scenarios where the third-generation squarks are light, while the first two generation squarks are heavy and near-degenerate. We show that not only is our formalism particularly well-suited to study such hierarchical squark mass patterns, but in addition the resulting soft terms at the TeV scale are manifestly compatible with the principle of minimal flavour violation, and thus automatically obey constraints from flavour physics.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figures; v2: matches journal versio

Vacuum stability and supersymmetry at high scales with two Higgs doublets

We investigate the stability of the electroweak vacuum for two-Higgs doublet models with a supersymmetric UV completion. The supersymmetry breaking scale is taken to be of the order of the grand unification scale. We first study the case where all superpartners decouple at this scale. We show that contrary to the Standard Model with one Higgs doublet, matching to the supersymmetric UV completion is possible if the low-scale model contains two Higgs doublets. In this case vacuum stability and experimental constraints point towards low values of tan(beta) < 2 and pseudoscalar masses of at least about a TeV. If the higgsino superpartners of the Higgs fields are also kept light, the conclusions are similar and essentially independent of the higgsino mass. Finally, if all gauginos are also given electroweak-scale masses (split supersymmetry with two Higgs doublets), the model cannot be matched to supersymmetry at very high scales when requiring a 125 GeV Higgs. Light neutral and charged higgsinos therefore emerge as a promising signature of a supersymmetric UV completion of the Standard Model at the grand unification scale.Comment: 27 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor changes in references and text, results unchange

Fluxes, Hierarchies, and Metastable Vacua in Supersymmetric Field Theories

This thesis concerns topics both in low-energy effective field theories from type IIB superstring flux compactifications and in fourdimensional, rigidly supersymmetric gauge theories. We introduce flux compactifications with so-called “warped throat” regions, which lead to large hierarchies of scales in the effective four-dimensional theory. The correspondence between a particular such throat and a five-dimensional Randall-Sundrum-like model is established. We shown how certain string-theoretic features of the compactification, such as moduli stabilization by fluxes or the presence of an unstabilized Kähler modulus, are incorporated in the five-dimensional picture. The KKLT construction for metastable de Sitter vacua is reviewed, as well as some possible modifications involving spontaneous F-term supersymmetry breaking. For KKLT-like models with their hidden sector localized inside a throat, the mediation of supersymmetry breaking to the visible sector is investigated. We review the mechanism of mixed modulus-anomaly mediation, and show that there can be additional equally important gravity-mediated contributions. We finally turn to the ISS model of metastable dynamical supersymmetry breaking in four dimensions, and present a renormalizable extension which generates a large hierarchy naturally. We also recapitulate how the ISS model may be obtained from a type IIB superstring model

Metastable supersymmetry breaking without scales

We construct new examples of models of metastable D=4 N=1 supersymmetry breaking in which all scales are generated dynamically. Our models rely on Seiberg duality and on the ISS mechanism of supersymmetry breaking in massive SQCD. Some of the electric quark superfields arise as composites of a strongly coupled gauge sector. This allows us to start with a simple cubic superpotential and an asymptotically free gauge group in the ultraviolet, and end up with an infrared effective theory which breaks supersymmetry dynamically in a metastable state.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure; v2: journal versio

A natural renormalizable model of metastable SUSY breaking

We propose a model of metastable dynamical supersymmetry breaking in which all scales are generated dynamically. Our construction is a simple variant of the Intriligator-Seiberg-Shih model, with quark masses induced by renormalizable couplings to an auxiliary supersymmetric QCD sector. Since all scales arise from dimensional transmutation, the model has no fundamental dimensionful parameters. It also does not rely on higher-dimensional operators.Comment: 9 pages; v2: typos correcte

Holographic metastability

We show how supersymmetric QCD in a slice of AdS can naturally acquire metastable vacua. The formulation closely follows that of Intriligator, Seiberg and Shih (ISS), with an "electric" sector on the UV brane and a "magnetic" sector on the IR brane. However the 't Hooft anomaly matching that constrains the Seiberg duality central to ISS is replaced by anomaly inflow and cancellation, and the source of strong coupling is the CFT to which the theory couples rather than the gauge groups. The theory contains an anomaly free R-symmetry that, when broken by UV effects, leads to an O'Raifeartaigh model on the IR brane. In contrast to ISS, the R-symmetry breaking in the UV can be maximal, and yet the R-symmetry breaking in the IR theory remains under strict control: there is no need for retrofitting of small parameters.Comment: 20 pages, 2 figure

Minicharges and Magnetic Monopoles

Minicharged particles arise naturally in extensions of the Standard Model with a kinetic mixing term between the ordinary electromagnetic U(1) and an extra "hidden sector" U(1). In this note we study the compatibility of these particles with the existence of magnetic monopoles. We find that angular momentum quantization allows only certain combinations of ordinary and hidden monopole charge. Using the example where one of the U(1)s originates from a spontaneously broken SU(2), we demonstrate that exactly the allowed types of monopoles arise as 't Hooft-Polyakov monopoles.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figur