Meta-Stable Supersymmetry Breaking in a Cooling Universe

TL;DR

This paper investigates whether a universe cooling from high temperature can naturally settle into a metastable supersymmetry-breaking vacuum within a simple model, analyzing phase transitions and potential barriers.

Contribution

It demonstrates that as the universe cools, a second order phase transition favors a metastable susy-breaking vacuum, while the susy vacuum remains separated by a barrier at all temperatures.

Findings

Second order phase transition at finite temperature favors susy-breaking vacuum.

Potential barrier in the susy vacuum persists down to zero temperature.

Cooling universe can naturally end in a metastable susy-breaking state.

Abstract

We look at the recently proposed idea that susy breaking can be accomplished in a meta-stable vacuum. In the context of one of the simplest models (the Seiberg-dual of super-QCD), we address the following question: if we look at this theory as it cools from high temperature, is it at all possible that we can end up in a susy-breaking meta-stable vacuum? To get an idea about the answer, we look at the free energy of the system at high temperature. We conclude that the phase-structure of the free-energy as the temperature drops, is indeed such that there is a second order phase transition in the direction of the non-susy vacuum at a finite $T=T_c^Q$. On the other hand, the potential barrier in the direction of the susy vacuum is there all the way till $T \sim 0$.