Softly Broken SQCD: in the Continuum, on the Lattice, on the Brane

TL;DR

This paper reviews progress in understanding softly broken SQCD across continuum, lattice, and brane frameworks, highlighting phase structures, lattice testing strategies, and string theory constructions with broken supersymmetry.

Contribution

It provides a unified analysis of softly broken SQCD solutions, including predictions for condensates and bound states, and connects field theory with string theory brane models.

Findings

Controlled solutions for small gaugino mass reveal phase structures.

Predictions for gaugino condensate and bound state masses.

Identification of non-supersymmetric brane configurations with softly broken N=2 SQCD.

Abstract

We review progress in studying the solutions of SQCD in the presence of explicit, soft SUSY breaking terms. Massive N=1 SQCD in the presence of a small gaugino mass leads to a controlled solution which has interesting phase structure with changing theta angle reminiscent of the QCD chiral Lagrangian. Current attempts to test the solutions of pure glue SQCD on the lattice require a theoretical understanding of the theory with small gaugino mass in order to understand the approach to the SUSY point. We provide such a description making predictions for the gaugino condensate and lightest bound state masses. Finally we briefly review recent D-brane constructions of 4D gauge theories in string theory including a non-supersymmetric configuration. We identify this configuration with softly broken N=2 SQCD.