Vacuum energy, holography and a quantum portrait of the visible Universe

Describing the presently observable Universe as a self-sustained condensate of gravitons of size $H_0^{-1}$, with large occupation number $N$, we argue that the most probable value for the quantum vacuum energy is of the order of the critical energy density, as observed.Comment: 9 page

Testing Gaugino Mass Unification Directly at the LHC

We report on the first step of a systematic study of how gaugino mass unification can be probed at the LHC in a quasi-model independent manner. Here we focus our attention on the theoretically well-motivated mirage pattern of gaugino masses, a one-parameter family of models of which universal (high scale) gaugino masses are a limiting case. Using a statistical method to optimize our signature selection we arrive at three ensembles of observables targeted at the physics of the gaugino sector, allowing for a determination of this non-universality parameter without reconstructing individual mass eigenvalues or the soft supersymmetry-breaking gaugino masses themselves. In this controlled environment we find that approximately 80% of the supersymmetric parameter space would give rise to a model for which our method will detect non-universality in the gaugino mass sector at the 10% level with approximately 10 inverse femptobarns of integrated luminosity.Comment: To appear in proceedings of "Beyond the Standard Model at the LHC (BSM-LHC)", June 2-4, 200

On Quadratic Divergences in Supergravity, Vacuum Energy and the Supersymmetric Flavor Problem

We examine the phenomenological consequences of quadratically divergent contributions to the scalar potential in supergravity effective Lagrangians. We focus specifically on the effect of these corrections on the vacuum configuration of scalar fields in softly-broken supersymmetric theories and the role these corrections play in generating non-diagonal soft scalar masses. Both effects can only be properly studied when the divergences are regulated in a manifestly supersymmetric manner -- something which has thus far been neglected in past treatments. We show how a supersymmetric regularization can impact past conclusions about both types of phenomena and discuss what types of high-energy theories are likely to be safe from unwanted flavor-changing neutral current interactions in the context of supergravity theories derived from heterotic string compactifications

Probing large-distance higher-dimensional gravity with Cosmic Microwave Background measurements

It has been recently argued that higher dimensional gravity theories may manifest themselves not only at short microscopic distances but also at large cosmological scales. We study the constraints that cosmic microwave background measurements set on such large distance modifications of the gravitational potential

SUSY dark matter with non-universal gaugino masses

In this talk we investigate the dark matter prospects for supersymmetric models with non-universal gaugino masses. We motivate the use of non-universal gaugino masses from several directions, including problems with the current favorite scenario, the cMSSM. We then display new corridors of parameter space that allow an acceptable dark matter relic density once gaugino mass universality is relaxed. We finish with a specific string-derived model that allows this universality relaxation and then use the dark matter constraint to make specific statements about the hidden sector of the model.Comment: Talk at Dark Matter 2002. 5 pages, 4 figure

S-Duality Constraints On Effective Potentials For Gaugino Condensation

We clarify the role of approximate S-duality in effective supergravity theories that are the low energy limits of string theories, and show how this partial symmetry may be used to constrain effective lagrangians for gaugino condensation.Comment: 22 page

Dynamical D4-D8 and D3-D7 branes in supergravity

We present a class of dynamical solutions for intersecting D4-D8 and D3-D7 brane systems in ten-dimensional type IIA and IIB supergravity. We discuss if these solutions can be recovered in lower-dimensional effective theories for the warped compactification of a general p-brane system. It is found that an effective $p+1$-dimensional description is not possible in general due to the entanglement of the transverse coordinates and the $p+1$-dimensional coordinates in the metric components. For the D4-D8 brane system, the dynamical solutions reduces to a static warped ${\rm AdS_6}\times {\rm S}^4$ geometry in a certain spacetime region. For the D3-D7 brane system, we find a dynamical solution whose metric form is similar to that of a D3-brane solution. The main difference is the existence of a nontrivial dilaton configuration in the D3-D7 solution. Then we discuss cosmology of these solutions. We find that they behave like a Kasner-type cosmological solution at $\tau\to\infty$, while it reduces to a warped static solution at $\tau\to0$, where $\tau$ is the cosmic time.Comment: 25 pages, no figure, typos corrected, references and discussions of D3-D7 brane solutions adde

Direct and Indirect Detection of Dark Matter in Heterotic Orbifold Models

We study the neutralino dark matter phenomenology in the context of effective field theories derived from the weakly--coupled heterotic string. We consider in particular direct detection and indirect detection with neutrino telescopes rates. The two cases of moduli dominated and dilaton dominated SUSY breaking lead to completely different phenomenologies. Even if in both cases relic density constraints can be fulfilled, moduli domination generically leads to detection rates which are much below the present and future experimental sensitivities, whereas dilaton domination gives high detection rates accessible to the next generation of experiments. This could make dark matter searches an alternative way to constrain high energy fundamental parameters.Comment: 29 pages, 13 figures. Notations clarified, figures improved, typos and english correcte

Dynamical solution of supergravity

We present a class of dynamical solutions for an intersecting D4-D8 brane system in ten-dimensional type IIA supergravity. The dynamical solutions reduces to a static warped AdS_6 x S^4 geometry in a certain spacetime region. We also consider lower-dimensional effective theories for the warped compactification of general p-brane system. It is found that an effective (p+1)-dimensional description is not possible in general due to the entanglement of the transverse coordinates and the (p+1)-dimensional coordinates in the metric components. Then we discuss cosmological solutions. We find a solution that behaves like a Kasner-type cosmological solution at $\tau\to\infty$, while it reduces to a warped static solution at $\tau\to0$, where $\tau$ is the cosmic time.Comment: 4 pages, no figure. Contribution to proceedings of the workshop "The 17th Workshop on General Relativity and Gravitation" (Japan, December 2007