5,187 research outputs found
The tension between gauge coupling unification, the Higgs boson mass, and a gauge-breaking origin of the supersymmetric mu-term
We investigate the possibility of generating the -term in the MSSM by
the condensation of a field that is a singlet under the SM gauge group but
charged under an additional family-independent gauge symmetry. We
attempt to do so while preserving the gauge coupling unification of the MSSM.
For this, we find that SM non-singlet exotics must be present in the spectrum.
We also prove that the pure anomalies can always be solved with
rationally charged fields, but that a large number of SM singlets are often
required. For charges that are consistent with an embedding of the
MSSM in SU(5) or SO(10), we show that the charges of the MSSM states
can always be expressed as a linear combination of abelian subgroups of .
However, the SM exotics do not appear to have a straightforward embedding into
GUT multiplets. We conclude from this study that if this approach to the
-term is correct, as experiment can probe, it will necessarily complicate
the standard picture of supersymmetric grand unification.Comment: 10 pages, no figure
Cosmic Archaeology with Gravitational Waves from Cosmic Strings
Cosmic strings are generic cosmological predictions of many extensions of the
Standard Model of particle physics, such as a symmetry breaking
phase transition in the early universe or remnants of superstring theory.
Unlike other topological defects, cosmic strings can reach a scaling regime
that maintains a small fixed fraction of the total energy density of the
universe from a very early epoch until today. If present, they will oscillate
and generate gravitational waves with a frequency spectrum that imprints the
dominant sources of total cosmic energy density throughout the history of the
universe. We demonstrate that current and future gravitational wave detectors,
such as LIGO and LISA, could be capable of measuring the frequency spectrum of
gravitational waves from cosmic strings and discerning the energy composition
of the universe at times well before primordial nucleosynthesis and the cosmic
microwave background where standard cosmology has yet to be tested. This work
establishes a benchmark case that gravitational waves may provide an
unprecedented, powerful tool for probing the evolutionary history of the very
early universe.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Holomorphic selection rules, the origin of the mu term, and thermal inflation
When an abelian gauge theory with integer charges is spontaneously broken by
the expectation value of a charge Q field, there remains a Z_Q discrete
symmetry. In a supersymmetric theory, holomorphy adds additional constraints on
the operators that can appear in the effective superpotential. As a result,
operators with the same mass dimension but opposite sign charges can have very
different coupling strengths. In the present work we characterize the operator
hierarchies in the effective theory due to holomorphy, and show that there
exist simple relationships between the size of an operator and its mass
dimension and charge. Using such holomorphy-induced operator hierarchies, we
construct a simple model with a naturally small supersymmetric mu term. This
model also provides a concrete realization of late-time thermal inflation,
which has the ability to solve the gravitino and moduli problems of weak-scale
supersymmetry.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur
The Political Divergence of Ohio and Michigan
Ohio and Michigan are demographically similar states whose politics have diverged since 2016. This research aims to explain why these two Midwestern states have taken such different political paths in recent years. A comparative case study is used to examine a number of possible explanations. The results of this research show that institutional factors such as registration and voting laws, redistricting processes, and ballot measures have contributed to the political divergence of Ohio and Michigan. Further, data on policy preferences are compared to show that the differences between the states are not the result of different policy preferences among their citizens. This research concludes with a discussion of other possible factors and the implications of the findings on political parties and electoral competition in Ohio
Higgs Boson Exempt No-Scale Supersymmetry and its Collider and Cosmology Implications
One of the most straightforward ways to address the flavor problem of
low-energy supersymmetry is to arrange for the scalar soft terms to vanish
simultaneously at a scale much larger than the electroweak scale. This
occurs naturally in a number of scenarios, such as no-scale models, gaugino
mediation, and several models with strong conformal dynamics. Unfortunately,
the most basic version of this approach that incorporates gaugino mass
unification and zero scalar masses at the grand unification scale is not
compatible with collider and dark matter constraints. However, experimental
constraints can be satisfied if we exempt the Higgs bosons from flowing to zero
mass value at the high scale. We survey the theoretical constructions that
allow this, and investigate the collider and dark matter consequences. A
generic feature is that the sleptons are relatively light. Because of this,
these models frequently give a significant contribution to the anomalous
magnetic moment of the muon, and neutralino-slepton coannihilation can play an
important role in obtaining an acceptable dark matter relic density.
Furthermore, the light sleptons give rise to a large multiplicity of lepton
events at colliders, including a potentially suggestive clean trilepton signal
at the Tevatron, and a substantial four lepton signature at the LHC.Comment: 36 pages, 16 figure
Higgs Boson Exempt No-Scale Supersymmetry with a Neutrino Seesaw: Implications for Lepton Flavor Violation and Leptogenesis
Motivated by the observation of neutrino oscillations, we extend the Higgs
boson exempt no-scale supersymmetry model (HENS) by adding three heavy
right-handed neutrino chiral supermultiplets to generate the light neutrino
masses and mixings. The neutrino Yukawa couplings can induce new lepton flavor
violating couplings among the soft terms in the course of renormalization group
running down from the boundary scale. We study the effects this has on the
predictions for low-energy probes of lepton flavor violation(LFV). Heavy
right-handed neutrinos also provide a way to generate the baryon asymmetry
through leptogenesis. We find that consistency with LFV and leptogenesis puts
strong requirements on either the form of the Yukawa mass matrix or the
smallness of the Higgs up soft mass. In all cases, we generically expect that
new physics LFV is non-zero and can be found in a future experiment.Comment: 25 pages, 11 figures; Added a referenc
Time of Flight Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometric Determination of Molecular Weight Distributions of Low Polydispersity Poly(Dimethyl Siloxane) with Polyatomic Primary Ions
This work reports a comparison of oligomer and fragment ion intensities resulting from primary ion bombardment with several primary ion sources (Bin+, C60+, and Cs+) at various energies in secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). Although the use of polyatomic primary ions are of great interest due to increased secondary ion efficiency and yield, we demonstrate that monatomic primary ions result in increased oligomer ion yield for polymers prepared as submonolayer films on silver substrates. The enhancement of oligomer secondary ion yield with monatomic ions is evidence that monatomic primary ions have a shallower sampling depth than polyatomic ions, resulting from a collision cascade that is less energetic at the sample surface. The results are also consistent with a lower degree of fragmentation of the resultant secondary ions, which is observed when evaluating the fragmentation data and the spectral data
Cosmic Strings from Supersymmetric Flat Directions
Flat directions are a generic feature of the scalar potential in
supersymmetric gauge field theories. They can arise, for example, from D-terms
associated with an extra abelian gauge symmetry. Even when supersymmetry is
broken softly, there often remain directions in the scalar field space along
which the potential is almost flat. Upon breaking a gauge symmetry along one of
these almost flat directions, cosmic strings may form. Relative to the standard
cosmic string picture based on the abelian Higgs model, these flat-direction
cosmic strings have the extreme Type-I properties of a thin gauge core
surrounded by a much wider scalar field profile. We perform a comprehensive
study of the microscopic, macroscopic, and observational characteristics of
this class of strings. We find many differences from the standard string
scenario, including stable higher winding mode strings, the dynamical formation
of higher mode strings from lower ones, and a resultant multi-tension scaling
string network in the early universe. These strings are only moderately
constrained by current observations, and their gravitational wave signatures
may be detectable at future gravity wave detectors. Furthermore, there is the
interesting but speculative prospect that the decays of cosmic string loops in
the early universe could be a source of ultra-high energy cosmic rays or
non-thermal dark matter. We also compare the observational signatures of
flat-direction cosmic strings with those of ordinary cosmic strings as well as
(p,q) cosmic strings motivated by superstring theory.Comment: 58 pages, 16 figures, v2. accepted to PRD, added comments about
baryogenesis and boosted decay products from cusp annihilatio
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