Dirac Gauginos, Negative Supertraces and Gauge Mediation

In an attempt to maximize General Gauge Mediated parameter space, I propose simple models in which gauginos and scalars are generated from disconnected mechanisms. In my models Dirac gauginos are generated through the supersoft mechanism, while independent R-symmetric scalar masses are generated through operators involving non-zero messenger supertrace. I propose several new methods for generating negative messenger supertraces which result in viable positive mass squareds for MSSM scalars. The resultant spectra are novel, compressed and may contain light fermionic SM adjoint fields.Comment: 16 pages 3 figure

Goldstini Can Give the Higgs a Boost

Supersymmetric collider phenomenology depends crucially on whether the lightest observable-sector supersymmetric particle (LOSP) decays, and if so, what the LOSP decay products are. For instance, in SUSY models where the gravitino is lighter than the LOSP, the LOSP decays to its superpartner and a longitudinal gravitino via supercurrent couplings. In this paper, we show that LOSP decays can be substantially modified when there are multiple sectors that break supersymmetry, where in addition to the gravitino there are light uneaten goldstini. As a particularly striking example, a bino-like LOSP can have a near 100% branching fraction to a higgs boson and an uneaten goldstino, even if the LOSP has negligible higgsino fraction. This occurs because the uneaten goldstino is unconstrained by the supercurrent, allowing additional operators to mediate LOSP decay. These operators can be enhanced in the presence of an R symmetry, leading to copious boosted higgs production in SUSY cascade decays.Comment: 30 pages, 12 figures; v2: title change, clarifications added, version to appear in JHE

Two-loop RGEs with Dirac gaugino masses

The set of renormalisation group equations to two loop order for general supersymmetric theories broken by soft and supersoft operators is completed. As an example, the explicit expressions for the RGEs in a Dirac gaugino extension of the (N)MSSM are presented.Comment: 10 pages + 24 pages of RGEs in appendix; no figure

Software security requirements management as an emerging cloud computing service

© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Emerging cloud applications are growing rapidly and the need for identifying and managing service requirements is also highly important and critical at present. Software Engineering and Information Systems has established techniques, methods and technology over two decades to help achieve cloud service requirements, design, development, and testing. However, due to the lack of understanding of software security vulnerabilities that should have been identified and managed during the requirements engineering phase, we have not been so successful in applying software engineering, information management, and requirements management principles that have been established for the past at least 25 years, when developing secure software systems. Therefore, software security cannot just be added after a system has been built and delivered to customers as seen in today's software applications. This paper provides concise methods, techniques, and best practice requirements engineering and management as an emerging cloud service (SSREMaaES) and also provides guidelines on software security as a service. This paper also discusses an Integrated-Secure SDLC model (IS-SDLC), which will benefit practitioners, researchers, learners, and educators. This paper illustrates our approach for a large cloud system Amazon EC2 service

A natural little hierarchy for RS from accidental SUSY

We use supersymmetry to address the little hierarchy problem in Randall-Sundrum models by naturally generating a hierarchy between the IR scale and the electroweak scale. Supersymmetry is broken on the UV brane which triggers the stabilization of the warped extra dimension at an IR scale of order 10 TeV. The Higgs and top quark live near the IR brane whereas light fermion generations are localized towards the UV brane. Supersymmetry breaking causes the first two sparticle generations to decouple, thereby avoiding the supersymmetric flavour and CP problems, while an accidental R-symmetry protects the gaugino mass. The resulting low-energy sparticle spectrum consists of stops, gauginos and Higgsinos which are sufficient to stabilize the little hierarchy between the IR scale and the electroweak scale. Finally, the supersymmetric little hierarchy problem is ameliorated by introducing a singlet Higgs field on the IR brane.Comment: 37 pages, 3 figures; v2: minor corrections, version published in JHE

Electroweak Baryogenesis and Dark Matter with an approximate R-symmetry

It is well known that R-symmetric models dramatically alleviate the SUSY flavor and CP problems. We study particular modifications of existing R-symmetric models which share the solution to the above problems, and have interesting consequences for electroweak baryogenesis and the Dark Matter (DM) content of the universe. In particular, we find that it is naturally possible to have a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition while simultaneously relaxing the tension with EDM experiments. The R-symmetry (and its small breaking) implies that the gauginos (and the neutralino LSP) are pseudo-Dirac fermions, which is relevant for both baryogenesis and DM. The singlet superpartner of the U(1)_Y pseudo-Dirac gaugino plays a prominent role in making the electroweak phase transition strongly first-order. The pseudo-Dirac nature of the LSP allows it to behave similarly to a Dirac particle during freeze-out, but like a Majorana particle for annihilation today and in scattering against nuclei, thus being consistent with current constraints. Assuming a standard cosmology, it is possible to simultaneously have a strongly first-order phase transition conducive to baryogenesis and have the LSP provide the full DM relic abundance, in part of the allowed parameter space. However, other possibilities for DM also exist, which are discussed. It is expected that upcoming direct DM searches as well as neutrino signals from DM annihilation in the Sun will be sensitive to this class of models. Interesting collider and Gravity-wave signals are also briefly discussed.Comment: 50 pages, 10 figure

Soft Terms from Broken Symmetries

In theories of phyiscs beyond the Standard Model (SM), visible sector fields often carry quantum numbers under additional gauge symmetries. One could then imagine a scenario in which these extra gauge symmetries play a role in transmitting supersymmetry breaking from a hidden sector to the Supersymmetric Standard Model (SSM). In this paper we present a general formalism for studying the resulting hidden sectors and calculating the corresponding gauge mediated soft parameters. We find that a large class of generic models features a leading universal contribution to the soft scalar masses that only depends on the scale of Higgsing, even if the model is strongly coupled. As a by-product of our analysis, we elucidate some IR aspects of the correlation functions in General Gauge Mediation. We also discuss possible phenomenological applications.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures; references adde

A Severe Lack of Evidence Limits Effective Conservation of the World's Primates

Threats to biodiversity are well documented. However, to effectively conserve species and their habitats, we need to know which conservation interventions do (or do not) work. Evidence-based conservation evaluates interventions within a scientific framework. The Conservation Evidence project has summarized thousands of studies testing conservation interventions and compiled these as synopses for various habitats and taxa. In the present article, we analyzed the interventions assessed in the primate synopsis and compared these with other taxa. We found that despite intensive efforts to study primates and the extensive threats they face, less than 1% of primate studies evaluated conservation effectiveness. The studies often lacked quantitative data, failed to undertake postimplementation monitoring of populations or individuals, or implemented several interventions at once. Furthermore, the studies were biased toward specific taxa, geographic regions, and interventions. We describe barriers for testing primate conservation interventions and propose actions to improve the conservation evidence base to protect this endangered and globally important taxon