de-Sitter vacua via consistent D-terms

TL;DR

This paper presents a new method for constructing stable de-Sitter or Minkowski vacua in string and M-theory compactifications, using a gauged U(1) symmetry that controls supersymmetry breaking and vacuum energy.

Contribution

It introduces a novel mechanism involving a gauged U(1) with axionic and R-symmetry components to achieve stable vacua with broken supersymmetry and no massless scalars.

Findings

Provides a simple supergravity model demonstrating the mechanism.

Offers parametric control over vacuum energy sign and magnitude.

Ensures stability and absence of massless scalars in vacua.

Abstract

We introduce a new mechanism for producing locally stable de-Sitter or Minkowski vacua, with spontaneously broken N=1 supersymmetry and no massless scalars, applicable to superstring and M-theory compactifications with fluxes. We illustrate the mechanism with a simple N=1 supergravity model that provides parametric control on the sign and the size of the vacuum energy. The crucial ingredient is a gauged U(1) that involves both an axionic shift and an R-symmetry, and severely constrains the F- and D-term contributions to the potential.