Renormalisation of the Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term

We consider the renormalisation of the Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term in a softly-broken Abelian supersymmetric theory. We show that there exists (at least through three loops) a renormalisation group invariant trajectory for the coefficient of the D-term, corresponding to the conformal anomaly solution for the soft masses and couplings.Comment: 11 pages, TeX, Uses Harvmac (big). References added, minor corrections (including a sign error for the zeta(3) terms), and discussion of scheme dependence corrected and amplifie

The Full Two-Loop R-parity Violating Renormalization Group Equations for All Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model Couplings

We present the full two-loop $\beta$-functions for the minimal supersymmetric standard model couplings, extended to include R-parity violating couplings through explicit R-parity violation

A three-loop check of the 'a - maximization' in SQCD with adjoint(s)

The 'a - maximization' was introduced by K. Inrtiligator and B. Wecht for finding anomalous dimensions of chiral superfields at the IR fixed points of the RG flow. Using known explicit calculations of anomalous dimensions in the perturbation theory of SQCD (with one or two additional adjoint fields), it is checked here at the three-loop level.Comment: 5 pages; the title changed, the text improved and expande

The Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term and its renormalisation in softly-broken supersymmetric theories

We consider the renormalisation of the Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term in a softly-broken abelian supersymmetric theory, and calculate the associated beta-function through three loops. We show that there exists (at least through three loops) a renormalisation group invariant trajectory for the coefficient of the D-term, corresponding to the conformal anomaly solution for the soft masses and couplings.Comment: 30 pages, Revtex, 15 Figures. Minor changes, and inadvertent omission of author from this abstract correcte

The Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term and its renormalisation in the MSSM

We consider the renormalisation of the Fayet-Iliopoulos D-term in a softly-broken supersymmetric gauge theory with a non-simple gauge group containing an abelian factor, and present the associated beta-function through three loops. We also include in an appendix the result for several abelian factors. We specialise to the case of the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), and investigate the behaviour of the Fayet-Iliopoulos coupling for various boundary conditions at the unification scale. We focus particularly on the case of non-standard soft supersymmetry breaking couplings, for which the Fayet-Iliopoulos coupling evolves significantly between the unification scale and the weak scale.Comment: 18 pages, Revtex, 2 figures. Expanded version including general results for gauge groups with several abelian factors. Minor typos correcte

Constraints on RG Flow for Four Dimensional Quantum Field Theories

The response of four dimensional quantum field theories to a Weyl rescaling of the metric in the presence of local couplings and which involve $a$, the coefficient of the Euler density in the energy momentum tensor trace on curved space, is reconsidered. Previous consistency conditions for the anomalous terms, which implicitly define a metric $G$ on the space of couplings and give rise to gradient flow like equations for $a$, are derived taking into account the role of lower dimension operators. The results for infinitesimal Weyl rescaling are integrated to finite rescalings $e^{2\sigma}$ to a form which involves running couplings $g_\sigma$ and which interpolates between IR and UV fixed points. The results are also restricted to flat space where they give rise to broken conformal Ward identities. Expressions for the three loop Yukawa $\beta$-functions for a general scalar/fermion theory are obtained and the three loop contribution to the metric $G$ for this theory are also calculated. These results are used to check the gradient flow equations to higher order than previously. It is shown that these are only valid when $\beta \to B$, a modified $\beta$-function, and that the equations provide strong constraints on the detailed form of the three loop Yukawa $\beta$-function. ${\cal N}=1$ supersymmetric Wess-Zumino theories are also considered as a special case. It is shown that the metric for the complex couplings in such theories may be restricted to a hermitian form.Comment: 86 pages, version 2, various corrections, section 3 significantly revised, version 3 further minor corrections, as to be published, version 4, some corrections and additional material in sections 2,

WZW-Toda Reduction using the Casimir Operator

We construct a quantum Hamiltonian operator for the Wess-Zumino-Witten (WZW) model in terms of the Casimir operator. This facilitates the discussion of the reduction of the WZW model to Toda field theory at the quantum level and provides a very straightforward derivation of the quantum central charge for the Toda field theory.Comment: 16pp, uses harvmac, LTH 304 (Revised version with improved discussion of non-perturbative effects