Observable Gravity Waves from Supersymmetric Hybrid Inflation II

It is shown that a tensor-to-scalar ratio close to r = 0.03, which can be observed by Planck, is realized in supersymmetric hybrid inflation models with TeV-scale soft supersymmetry breaking terms. This extends our previous analysis, which also found r <~ 0.03 but employed intermediate scale soft terms. Other cosmological observables such as the scalar spectral index are in good agreement with the WMAP data.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Amelioration of Little Hierarchy Problem in SU(4)_c x SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R

The little hierarchy problem encountered in the constrained minimal supersymmetric model (CMSSM) can be ameliorated in supersymmetric models based on the gauge symmetry G_{422} \equiv SU(4)_c x SU(2)_L x SU(2)_R. The standard assumption in CMSSM (and in SU(5) and SO(10)) of universal gaugino masses can be relaxed in G_{422}, and this leads to a significant improvement in the degree of fine tuning required to implement radiative electroweak breaking in the presence of a characteristic supersymmetry breaking scale of around a TeV. Examples of Higgs and sparticle mass spectra realized with 10% fine tuning are presented.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 2 table

Higgs Boson Mass, Sparticle Spectrum and Little Hierarchy Problem in Extended MSSM

We investigate the impact of TeV-scale matter belonging to complete vectorlike multiplets of unified groups on the lightest Higgs boson in the MSSM. We find that consistent with perturbative unification and electroweak precision data the mass m_h can be as large as 160 GeV. These extended MSSM models can also render the little hierarchy problem less severe, but only for lower values of m_h < 125 GeV. We present estimates for the sparticle mass spectrum in these models.Comment: 27 pages, 14 figure

Red Spectral Tilt and Observable Gravity Waves in Shifted Hybrid Inflation

We consider supersymmetric shifted hybrid inflation models with a red tilted scalar spectral index n_s in agreement with the WMAP 7-yr central value. If non-minimal supergravity corrections are included, these models can also support a tensor-to-scalar ratio as large as r = 0.02, which may be observable by the Planck Satellite. In contrast to the standard supersymmetric hybrid inflation scenario, topological defects produced via gauge symmetry breaking are inflated away in the shifted version of the theory.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, and 1 tabl