Dynamical SUSY and R-symmetry breaking in SQCD with massive and massless flavors

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a simple mechanism for dynamical supersymmetry and R-symmetry breaking in SQCD with mixed flavors, leading to metastable vacua suitable for gauge mediation models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism combining two-loop effects and higher-dimension operators to achieve metastable SUSY and R-symmetry breaking in SQCD with both massive and massless flavors.

Findings

Metastable vacua can be long-lived due to competing effects.

A complete minimal gauge mediation model is constructed.

Parameters are highly constrained by the hidden sector.

Abstract

We show that supersymmetry and R-symmetry can be dynamically broken in a long-lived metastable vacuum of SQCD with massive and massless flavors. The vacuum results from a competition of a (leading) two-loop effect and small "Planck" suppressed higher-dimension operators. This mechanism provides a particularly simple realization of dynamical SUSY and R-symmetry breaking, and as such it is a good starting point for building phenomenologically viable models of gauge mediation. We take a preliminary step in this direction by constructing a complete model of minimal gauge mediation. Here we find that the parameters of the model are surprisingly constrained by the hidden sector. Similar mechanisms for creating long-lived states operate in a large class of models.