Testing Split Supersymmetry with Inflation

Abstract

Split supersymmetry (SUSY) -- in which SUSY is relevant to our universe but largely inaccessible at current accelerators -- has become increasingly plausible given the absence of new physics at the LHC, the success of gauge coupling unification, and the observed Higgs mass. Indirect probes of split SUSY such as electric dipole moments (EDMs) and flavor violation offer hope for further evidence but are ultimately limited in their reach. Inflation offers an alternate window into SUSY through the direct production of superpartners during inflation. These particles are capable of leaving imprints in future cosmological probes of primordial non-gaussianity. Given the recent observations of BICEP2, the scale of inflation is likely high enough to probe the full range of split SUSY scenarios and therefore offers a unique advantage over low energy probes. The key observable for future experiments is equilateral non-gaussianity, which will be probed by both cosmic microwave background (CMB) and large scale structure (LSS) surveys. In the event of a detection, we forecast our ability to find evidence for superpartners through the scaling behavior in the squeezed limit of the bispectrum.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure