Supersymmetry Breaking and alpha'-Corrections to Flux Induced Potentials

TL;DR

This paper explores how alpha'-corrections influence flux-induced potentials in string and M-theory compactifications, revealing potential mechanisms for vacuum stabilization and the emergence of non-supersymmetric vacua with zero cosmological constant.

Contribution

It demonstrates that alpha'-corrections modify the supergravity potential, potentially stabilizing moduli and affecting the structure of vacua in flux compactifications.

Findings

Alpha'-corrections introduce a term proportional to the Euler number of the internal manifold.

Many vacua are non-supersymmetric yet have zero cosmological constant.

Alpha'-corrections can destabilize the no-scale structure, aiding moduli stabilization.

Abstract

We obtain the vacuum solutions for M-theory compactified on eight-manifolds with non-vanishing four-form flux by analyzing the scalar potential appearing in the three-dimensional theory. Many of these vacua are not supersymmetric and yet have a vanishing three-dimensional cosmological constant. We show that in the context of Type IIB compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds with fluxes and external brane sources alpha'-corrections generate a correction to the supergravity potential proportional to the Euler number of the internal manifold which spoils the no-scale structure appearing in the classical potential. This indicates that alpha'-corrections may indeed lead to a stabilization of the radial modulus appearing in these compactifications.