Scherk-Schwarz Supersymmetry Breaking with Radion Stabilization

TL;DR

This paper explores radion stabilization in five-dimensional supersymmetric models with Scherk-Schwarz supersymmetry breaking, showing that radiative corrections with boundary-localized fields can stabilize the radion in a metastable vacuum, with observable implications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel radion stabilization mechanism via radiative corrections in 5D supersymmetric theories with Scherk-Schwarz breaking, incorporating boundary-localized fields.

Findings

Radion can be stabilized in a metastable Minkowski vacuum.

Radion mass is in the meV range, affecting gravitational tests.

Stability depends on the number of boundary-localized fields.

Abstract

We study the issue of radion stabilization within five-dimensional supersymmetric theories compactified on the orbifold S^1/Z_2. We break supersymmetry by the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism and explain its implementation in the off-shell formulation of five dimensional supergravity in terms of the tensor and linear compensator multiplets. We show that radion stabilization may be achieved by radiative corrections in the presence of five-dimensional fields which are quasi-localized on the boundaries through the presence of Z_2 odd mass terms. For the mechanism to work the number of quasi-localized fields should be greater than 2+N_V-N_h where N_V and N_h are the number of massless gauge- and hypermultiplets in the bulk. The radion is stabilized in a metastable Minkowski vacuum with a lifetime much larger than cosmological time-scales. The radion mass is in the meV range making it interesting for present and future measurements of deviations from the gravitational inverse-square law in the submillimeter range.