Fourteen new stationary points in the scalar potential of SO(8)-gauged N=8, D=4 supergravity

TL;DR

This paper discovers fourteen new stationary points in the scalar potential of SO(8)-gauged N=8, D=4 supergravity, expanding the known solutions with potential implications for stability and symmetry breaking.

Contribution

The authors numerically identify fourteen new stationary points in the scalar potential, revealing diverse symmetry breaking patterns and possible supersymmetry preservation.

Findings

Eight solutions break the gauge group completely.

Three solutions have residual U(1) symmetry.

One solution may preserve N=1 supersymmetry.

Abstract

The list of six previously known nontrivial stationary points in the scalar potential of N=8, D=4 supergravity with gauge group SO(8) is extended by fourteen new entries, whose properties have been obtained numerically using the sensitivity backpropagation technique. Eight of the new solutions break the gauge group completely, while three have a residual symmetry of U(1). Three further ones break the gauge group to U(1)xU(1), and while the approximate numerical data are somewhat inconclusive, there is evidence that one of these may have a residual N=1 supersymmetry, hence correspond to a stable vacuum. It must be pointed out that this list of new solutions most likely is not exhaustive.