Split extended supersymmetry from intersecting branes

We study string realizations of split extended supersymmetry, recently proposed in hep-ph/0507192. Supersymmetry is broken by small ($\epsilon$) deformations of intersection angles of $D$-branes giving tree-level masses of order $m_0^2\sim \epsilon M_s^2$, where $M_s$ is the string scale, to localized scalars. We show through an explicit one-loop string amplitude computation that gauginos acquire hierarchically smaller Dirac masses $m_{1/2}^D \sim m_0^2/M_s$. We also evaluate the one-loop Higgsino mass, $\mu$, and show that, in the absence of tree-level contributions, it behaves as $\mu\sim m_0^4/M_s^3$. Finally we discuss an alternative suppression of scales using large extra dimensions. The latter is illustrated, for the case where the gauge bosons appear in N=4 representations, by an explicit string model with Standard Model gauge group, three generations of quarks and leptons and gauge coupling unification.Comment: 32 pages, 3 figure

The Higgs as a Portal to Plasmon-like Unparticle Excitations

A renormalizable coupling between the Higgs and a scalar unparticle operator O_U of non-integer dimension d_U<2 triggers, after electroweak symmetry breaking, an infrared divergent vacuum expectation value for O_U. Such IR divergence should be tamed before any phenomenological implications of the Higgs-unparticle interplay can be drawn. In this paper we present a novel mechanism to cure that IR divergence through (scale-invariant) unparticle self-interactions, which has properties qualitatively different from the mechanism considered previously. Besides finding a mass gap in the unparticle continuum we also find an unparticle pole reminiscent of a plasmon resonance. Such unparticle features could be explored experimentally through their mixing with the Higgs boson.Comment: 12 LaTeX pages, 2 figure

Some Cosmological Implications of Hidden Sectors

We discuss some cosmological implications of extensions of the Standard Model with hidden sector scalars coupled to the Higgs boson. We put special emphasis on the conformal case, in which the electroweak symmetry is broken radiatively with a Higgs mass above the experimental limit. Our refined analysis of the electroweak phase transition in this kind of models strengthens the prediction of a strongly first-order phase transition as required by electroweak baryogenesis. We further study gravitational wave production and the possibility of low-scale inflation as well as a viable dark matter candidate.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures; some comments added, published versio

The lightest Higgs mass in supersymmetric models with extra dimensions

In the four-dimensional supersymmetric standard model extended with gauge singlets the lightest Higgs boson mass, $M_H$, has an important contribution proportional to the squared of the superpotential coupling $\lambda$ of singlets to Higgs fields, $\lambda SH_1\cdot H_2$. The requirement of perturbativity up to the unification scale yields an upper bound on $M_H\sim 140$ GeV. In extensions to theories with (longitudinal) extra dimensions at the TeV where such coupling exists and massive Kaluza-Klein states fall into N=2 representations, if either of the Higgs or singlet fields live in the bulk of the extra dimensions, the $\beta$-function of $\lambda$ is suppressed due to the absence of anomalous dimension of hypermultiplets to leading order. This implies a slower running of $\lambda$ and an enhancement of its low energy value. The $M_H$ upper bound increases to values $M_H\lesssim 165$ GeV.Comment: Latex2e, 11 pages, 1 figur

Inversion of the anomeric configuration of the transferred sugar during inactivation of the macrolide antibiotic oleandomycin catalyzed by a macrolide glycosyltransferase

AbstractMacrolides are a group of antibiotics structurally characterized by a macrocyclic lactone to which one or several deoxy-sugar moieties are attached. The sugar moieties are transferred to the different aglycones by glycosyltransferases (GTF). The OleI GTF of an oleandomycin producer, Streptomyces antibioticus, catalyzes the inactivation of this macrolide by glycosylation. The product of this reaction was isolated and its structure elucidated. The donor substrate of the reaction was UDP-α-D-glucose, but the reaction product showed a β-glycosidic linkage. The inversion of the anomeric configuration of the transferred sugar and other data about the kinetics of the reaction and primary structure analysis of several GTFs are compatible with a reaction mechanism involving a single nucleophilic substitution at the sugar anomeric carbon in the catalytic center of the enzyme

The MSSM from Scherk-Schwarz Supersymmetry Breaking

We present a five-dimensional model compactified on an interval where supersymmetry is broken by the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism. The gauge sector propagates in the bulk, two Higgs hypermultiplets are quasilocalized, and quark and lepton multiplets localized, in one of the boundaries. The effective four-dimensional theory is the MSSM with very heavy gauginos, heavy squarks and light sleptons and Higgsinos. The soft tree-level squared masses of the Higgs sector can be negative and they can (partially) cancel the positive one-loop contributions from the gauge sector. Electroweak symmetry breaking can then comfortably be triggered by two-loop radiative corrections from the top-stop sector. The fine tuning required to obtain the electroweak scale is found to be much smaller than in the MSSM, with essentially no fine-tuning for few TeV gaugino masses. All bounds from direct Higgs searches at LEP and from electroweak precision observables can be satisfied. The lightest supersymmetric particle is a (Higgsino-like) neutralino that can accomodate the abundance of Dark Matter consistently with recent WMAP observations.Comment: 23 pages, 3 figure