Supersymmetry Breakdown at a Hidden Wall

TL;DR

This paper investigates how supersymmetry breaking occurs in a strongly coupled heterotic string theory, revealing that gravitational effects induce soft breaking terms and highlighting differences in gaugino mass generation compared to weakly coupled scenarios.

Contribution

It demonstrates the mechanism of supersymmetry breaking via gravitational interactions in a strongly coupled heterotic framework, with a focus on gaugino condensation at the hidden wall.

Findings

Gravitational interactions induce soft supersymmetry breaking terms of order the gravitino mass.

Differences in gaugino mass generation have significant phenomenological and cosmological implications.

The analysis extends effective field theory methods to strongly coupled heterotic models.

Abstract

We consider hidden sector supersymmetry breakdown in the strongly coupled heterotic $E_8\times E_8$ theory of Ho\v{r}ava and Witten. Using effective field theory methods in four dimensions, we can show that gravitational interactions induce soft breaking terms in the observable sector that are of order of the gravitiono mass. We apply these methods to the mechanism of gaugino condensation at the hidden wall. Although the situation is very similar to the weakly coupled case, there is a decisive difference concerning the observable sector gaugino mass; with desirable phenomenological as well as cosmological consequences.