Reheating after inflation by supersymmetry breaking

We study reheating after the end of inflation in models where the inflaton is the superpartner of goldstino and is charged under a gauged U(1) R-symmetry. We consider two classes of models – one is small field characterized by an almost flat Kähler space, and the other large field characterized by a hyperbolic Kähler space SU(1, 1)/U(1), while in both cases the inflaton superpotential is linear due to the R-symmetry. The inflationary observables of our models fit within 2$$\sigma $$ σ CMB values. Upon coupling the inflaton sector to the (supersymmetric) Standard Model, we compute the MSSM parameters, mass spectrum, and decay modes of the inflaton, with the resulting reheating temperature around $$10^8$$ 10 8 GeV. We also find that both models can accommodate superheavy LSP dark matter, depending on the parameter choice.

A formal notion of genericity and term-by-term vanishing superpotentials at supersymmetric vacua from R-symmetric Wess-Zumino models

It is known in previous literature that if a Wess-Zumino model with an R-symmetry gives a supersymmetric vacuum, the superpotential vanishes at the vacuum. In this work, we establish a formal notion of genericity, and show that if the R-symmetric superpotential has generic coefficients, the superpotential vanishes term-by-term at a supersymmetric vacuum. This result constrains the form of the superpotential which leads to a supersymmetric vacuum. It may contribute to a refined classification of R-symmetric Wess-Zumino models, and find applications in string constructions of vacua with small superpotentials. A similar result for a scalar potential system with a scaling symmetry is discussed.

Nonexistence of supersymmetry breaking counterexamples to the Nelson-Seiberg theorem

Counterexample models to the Nelson-Seiberg theorem have been discovered, and their features have been studied in previous literature. All currently known counterexamples have generic superpotentials respecting the R-symmetry, and more R-charge 2 fields than R-charge 0 fields. But they give supersymmetric vacua with spontaneous R-symmetry breaking, thus violate both the Nelson-Seiberg theorem and its revisions. This work proves that the other type of counterexamples do not exist. When there is no R-symmetry, or there are no more R-charge 2 fields than R-charge 0 fields in models with R-symmetries, generic superpotentials always give supersymmetric vacua. There exists no specific arrangement of R-charges or non-R symmetry representations which makes a counterexample with a supersymmetry breaking vacuum. This nonexistence theorem contributes to a refined classification of R-symmetric Wess-Zumino models.

SUSY-breaking scenarios with a mildly violated $$\varvec{R}$$ symmetry

New realizations of the gravity-mediated SUSY breaking are presented consistently with an R symmetry. We employ monomial superpotential terms for the hidden-sector (goldstino) superfield and Kähler potentials parameterizing compact or non-compact Kähler manifolds. Their scalar curvature may be systematically related to the R charge of the goldstino so that Minkowski solutions without fine tuning are achieved. A mild violation of the R symmetry by a higher order term in the Kähler potentials allows for phenomenologically acceptable masses for the R axion. In all cases, non-vanishing soft SUSY-breaking parameters are obtained and a solution to the $$\mu $$ μ problem of MSSM may be accommodated by conveniently applying the Giudice–Masiero mechanism.

Notes on gravity multiplet correlators in AdS3 × S3

We present a compact formula in Mellin space for the four-point tree-level holographic correlators of chiral primary operators of arbitrary conformal weights in (2, 0) supergravity on AdS3× S3, with two operators in tensor multiplet and the other two in gravity multiplet. This is achieved by solving the recursion relation arising from a hidden six-dimensional conformal symmetry. We note the compact expression is obtained after carefully analysing the analytic structures of the correlators. Various limits of the correlators are studied, including the maximally R-symmetry violating limit and flat-space limit.

A sufficient condition for counterexamples to the Nelson-Seiberg theorem

Several counterexample models to the Nelson-Seiberg theorem have been discovered in previous literature, with generic superpotentials respecting the R-symmetry and non-generic R-charge assignments for chiral fields. This work present a sufficient condition for such counterexample models: the number of R-charge 2 fields, which is greater than the number of R-charge 0 fields, must be less than or equal to the number of R-charge 0 fields plus the number of independent field pairs with opposite R-charges and satisfying some extra requirements. We give a correct count of such field pairs when there are multiple field pairs with degenerated R-charges. These models give supersymmetric vacua with spontaneous R-symmetry breaking, thus are counterexamples to both the Nelson-Seiberg theorem and its extensions.

Supersymmetric graphene on squashed hemisphere

We compute the partition function of $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 2 supersymmetric mixed dimensional QED on a squashed hemisphere using localization. Mixed dimensional QED is an abelian gauge theory coupled to charged matter fields at the boundary. The partition function is a function of the complex gauge coupling τ, the choice of R-symmetry and the squashing deformation. The superconformal R-symmetry is determined using the 3-dimensional F-maximization. The free energy as a function of squashing deformation allows computing correlation functions that contain the insertion of the energy-momentum tensor. We compute the 2-point correlation function of the energy-momentum tensor of 3-dimensional theory by differentiating the free energy with respect to the squashing parameter. We comment on the behaviour of the 2-point function as we change the complex coupling τ.

Bootstrapping mixed correlators in $$ \mathcal{N} $$ = 4 super Yang-Mills

We perform a numerical bootstrap study of the mixed correlator system containing the half-BPS operators of dimension two and three in $$ \mathcal{N} $$ N = 4 Super Yang-Mills. This setup improves on previous works in the literature that only considered single correlators of one or the other operator. We obtain upper bounds on the leading twist in a given representation of the R-symmetry by imposing gaps on the twist of all operators rather than the dimension of a single one. As a result we find a tension between the large N supergravity predictions and the numerical finite N results already at N∼ 100. A few possible solutions are discussed: the extremal spectrum suggests that at large but finite N, in addition to the double trace operators, there exists a second tower of states with smaller dimension. We also obtain new bounds on the dimension of operators which were not accessible with a single correlator setup. Finally we consider bounds on the OPE coefficients of various operators. The results obtained for the OPE coefficient of the lightest scalar singlet show evidences of a two dimensional conformal manifold.

Superspace formulation of exotic supergravities in six dimensions

We provide a linearised superfield description of the exotic non-metric N = (4, 0) supergravity in D = 6, by using a pure spinor superfield formalism. The basic field Ψ is a ghost number 2 scalar, transforming in the same R-symmetry module as the tensor fields. Partial results for the N = (1, 3) model are presented.