Gravitational quantum corrections in warped supersymmetric brane worlds

TL;DR

This paper analyzes gravitational quantum corrections in warped supersymmetric brane worlds, developing a superfield formalism and computing the effective Kahler potential, revealing how localized kinetic terms influence soft mass contributions.

Contribution

It introduces a superfield formalism for linearized gauged supergravity in warped extra dimensions and derives a simple functional form for the 1-loop Kahler potential considering localized brane terms.

Findings

The 1-loop Kahler potential depends on the KK spectrum with localized brane kinetic terms.

Radion mediation and brane-to-brane mediation contributions are both negative in minimal setups.

A sizable hidden brane kinetic term can make radion-mediated soft masses positive.

Abstract

We study gravitational quantum corrections in supersymmetric theories with warped extra dimensions. We develop for this a superfield formalism for linearized gauged supergravity. We show that the 1-loop effective Kahler potential is a simple functional of the KK spectrum in the presence of generic localized kinetic terms at the two branes. We also present a simple understanding of our results by showing that the leading matter effects are equivalent to suitable displacements of the branes. We then apply this general result to compute the gravity-mediated universal soft mass $m_0^2$ in models where the visible and the hidden sectors are sequestered at the two branes. We find that the contributions coming from radion mediation and brane-to-brane mediation are both negative in the minimal set-up, but the former can become positive if the gravitational kinetic term localized at the hidden brane has a sizeable coefficient. We then compare the features of the two extreme cases of flat and very warped geometry, and give an outlook on the building of viable models.