Metastable Vacua in Superconformal SQCD-like Theories

We study dynamical supersymmetry breaking in vector-like superconformal N=1 gauge theories. We find appropriate deformations of the superpotential to overcome the problem of the instability of the non supersymmetric vacuum. The request for long lifetime translates into constraints on the physical couplings which in this regime can be controlled through efficient RG analysis.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, JHEP3.cl

Soft Spectrum in Yukawa-Gauge Mediation

We introduce a model independent parametrization for a subclass of gauge mediated theories, which we refer to as Yukawa-gauge mediation. Within this formalism we study the resulting soft masses in the visible spectrum. We find general expressions for the gaugino and scalar masses. Under generic conditions, the gaugino mass is screened, vanishing at first order in the SUSY breaking scale.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures; v2: minor corrections, published versio

Superconformal Flavor Simplified

A simple explanation of the flavor hierarchies can arise if matter fields interact with a conformal sector and different generations have different anomalous dimensions under the CFT. However, in the original study by Nelson and Strassler many supersymmetric models of this type were considered to be 'incalculable' because the R-charges were not sufficiently constrained by the superpotential. We point out that nearly all such models are calculable with the use of a-maximization. Utilizing this, we construct the simplest vector-like flavor models and discuss their viability. A significant constraint on these models comes from requiring that the visible gauge couplings remain perturbative throughout the conformal window needed to generate the hierarchies. However, we find that there is a small class of simple flavor models that can evade this bound.Comment: 43 pages, 1 figure; V3: small corrections and clarifications, references adde

General Gauge Mediation with Gauge Messengers

We generalize the General Gauge Mediation formalism to allow for the possibility of gauge messengers. Gauge messengers occur when charged matter fields of the susy-breaking sector have non-zero F-terms, which leads to tree-level, susy-breaking mass splittings in the gauge fields. A classic example is that SU(5) / SU(3) x SU(2) x U(1) gauge fields could be gauge messengers. We give a completely general, model independent, current-algebra based analysis of gauge messenger mediation of susy-breaking to the visible sector. Characteristic aspects of gauge messengers include enhanced contributions to gaugino masses, (tachyonic) sfermion mass-squareds generated already at one loop, and also at two loops, and significant one-loop A-terms, already at the messenger scale.Comment: 79 pages, 5 figure

Supersymmetry Breaking in Chern-Simons-matter Theories

Some of supersymmetric Chern-Simons theories are known to exhibit supersymmetry breaking when the Chern-Simons level is less than a certain number. The mechanism of the supersymmetry breaking is, however, not clear from the field theory viewpoint. In this paper, we discuss vacuum states of ${\cal N}=2$ pure Chern-Simons theory and ${\cal N}=2$ Chern-Simons-matter theories of quiver type using related theories in which Chern-Simons terms are replaced with (anti-)fundamental chiral multiplets. In the latter theories, supersymmetry breaking can be shown to occur by examining that the vacuum energy is non-zero.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, v2) references adde

Assessing a candidate IIA dual to metastable supersymmetry-breaking

We analyze the space of linearized non-supersymmetric deformations around a IIA solution found by Cvetic, Gibbons, Lu and Pope (CGLP) in hep-th/0101096. We impose boundary conditions aimed at singling out among those perturbations those describing the backreaction of anti-D2 branes on the CGLP background. The corresponding supergravity solution is a would-be dual to a metastable supersymmetry-breaking state. However, it turns out that this candidate bulk solution is inevitably riddled with IR divergences of its flux densities and action, whose physical meaning and implications for models of string cosmology call for further investigation.Comment: 33 pages. v2: reference added, clarifications in the introductio

Global Symmetries and D-Terms in Supersymmetric Field Theories

We study the role of D-terms in supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking. By carefully analyzing the SUSY multiplets containing various conserved currents in theories with global symmetries, we obtain a number of constraints on the renormalization group flow in supersymmetric field theories. Under broad assumptions, these results imply that there are no SUSY-breaking vacua, not even metastable ones, with parametrically large D-terms. This explains the absence of such D-terms in models of dynamical SUSY-breaking. There is, however, a rich class of calculable models which generate comparable D-terms and F-terms through a variety of non-perturbative effects; these D-terms can be non-abelian. We give several explicit examples of such models, one of which is a new calculable limit of the 3-2 model.Comment: 34 pages, 2 figures; reference added, minor change

Dynamical completions of generalized O'Raifeartaigh models

We present gauge theory completions of Wess-Zumino models admitting supersymmetry breaking vacua with spontaneously broken R-symmetry. Our models are simple deformations of generalized ITIY models, a supersymmetric theory with gauge group Sp(N), N+1 flavors plus singlets, with a modified tree level superpotential which explicitly breaks (part of) the global symmetry. Depending on the nature of the deformation, we obtain effective O'Raifeartaigh-like models whose pseudomoduli space is locally stable in a neighborhood of the origin of field space, or in a region not including it. Hence, once embedded in direct gauge mediation scenarios, our models can give low energy spectra with either suppressed or unsuppressed gaugino mass.Comment: 21 pages, 1 figure; v3: reference adde

Non Supersymmetric Metastable Vacua in N=2 SYM Softly Broken to N=1

We find non-supersymmetric metastable vacua in four dimensional N=2 gauge theories softly broken to N=1 by a superpotential term. First we study the simplest case, namely the SU(2) gauge theory without flavors. We study the spectrum and lifetime of the metastable vacuum and possible embeddings of the model in UV complete theories. Then we consider larger gauge group theories with flavors. We show that when we softly break them to N=1, the potential induced on specific submanifolds of their moduli space is identical to the potential in lower rank gauge theories. Then we show that the potential increases when we move away from this submanifold, allowing us to construct metastable vacua on them in the theories that can be reduced to the SU(2) case.Comment: 29 pages, 10 figure

Cascades with Adjoint Matter: Adjoint Transitions

A large class of duality cascades based on quivers arising from non-isolated singularities enjoy adjoint transitions - a phenomenon which occurs when the gauge coupling of a node possessing adjoint matter is driven to strong coupling in a manner resulting in a reduction of rank in the non-Abelian part of the gauge group and a subsequent flow to weaker coupling. We describe adjoint transitions in a simple family of cascades based on a Z2-orbifold of the conifold using field theory. We show that they are dual to Higgsing and produce varying numbers of U(1) factors, moduli, and monopoles in a manner which we calculate. This realizes a large family of cascades which proceed through Seiberg duality and Higgsing. We briefly describe the supergravity limit of our analysis, as well as a prescription for treating more general theories. A special role is played by N=2 SQCD. Our results suggest that additional light fields are typically generated when UV completing certain constructions of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking into cascades, potentially leading to instabilities.Comment: 29 pages, a few typos fixed, improved discussion, added figure; now there is 1 figur