Supersymmetry Breaking and Its Mediation in Field

Home , Eva Silverstein, Shamit Kachru, Supersymmetry (Angel)

Supersymmetry Breaking and its Mediation in Field Theory and String Theory Summer 2008 Workshop proposal (Aspen Center for Physics) June 14, 2007 Proposed dates: Four weeks between June 4 and August 11, 2008

Organizers: Shamit Kachru Department of Physics and SLAC Stanford University Palo Alto, CA 94305 [email protected]

David E. Kaplan Department of Physics and Astronomy Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, MD 21218 [email protected]

Yasunori Nomura Department of Physics University of California Berkeley, CA 94720 [email protected]

Eva Silverstein Department of Physics and SLAC Stanford University Palo Alto, CA 94305 [email protected]

Format: This workshop is designed to serve as a core workshop in both string theory and particle theory phenomenology as the Aspen Center for Physics. The main purpose is to facilitate interaction between string theorists and particle theory model builders, on topics at the forefront of SUSY theory and phenomenology that may be LHC-relevant. The four-week length is justified by the wide range of issues that these subjects entail (ranging from the little hierarchy problem and flavor physics, to geometric engineering of SUSY breaking and gravity or flux duals of dynamical SUSY breaking).

1 Conflicts: It is our strong desire to avoid conflict with the Strings 2008 meeting, which will happen at CERN from August 18-23. If it is possible, we would also like to avoid conflict with a string meeting to occur at the BIRS conference center in Canada from June 22-27. At the same time, it would be very useful if this workshop could (partially?) overlap with a collider-phenomenology particle physics workshop, and also any workshop on early universe cosmology.

Description and Justification: In recent years, both particle theorists interested in beyond Standard Model physics (soon to be explored at LHC) and string theorists interested in incorporating realistic models of physics in string compactifications, have brought significant focus to the problem of constructing realistic models of SUSY breaking and its mediation to the Standard Model. From the model building perspective, some of the central questions have included: a) can one construct SUSY models that are not finely tuned at the weak scale (avoiding the so-called “little hierarchy problem”)?, b) can one find more simple, natural models of dynamical SUSY breaking?, c) how easily can one construct realistic models of high-scale mediation which solve the SUSY flavor problem in a natural way?, d) are elegant models of gauge mediation more easily constructed using theories with metastable vacua? On the string theory side, there has been significant focus on: a) constructing known examples of field theories with dynamical supersymmetry breaking on D-branes at Calabi-Yau singularities or on intersecting D-branes, b) finding novel new SUSY breaking states using AdS/CFT and the gravity description, or geometric transitions, and c) discovering to what extent the high-scale mediation mechanisms which require assumptions about UV or extra-dimensional physics but may also solve the flavor problem are naturally realizable. These issues, especially the issues related to naturalness, also connect to explorations of the “string landscape,” where it becomes possible and natural to ask the question: to what extent does string theory even favor or suggest that low-energy supersymmetry is relevant to the hierarchy problem? Are other higher scale SUSY breaking theories perhaps equally or more relevant in top down constructions? And does this new idea of naturalness suggest new strategies for model building? We believe the time is ripe for interaction between model builders and string theorists who are interested in constructing supersymmetric models that may be relevant for LHC physics, in motivating alternative models, and in understanding the strong coupling dynamics of supersymmetric field theories (which can be quite relevant to SUSY breaking and transmission mechanisms) more generally.

2 Topics: Specific topics for the workshop include the following. • The LHC inverse problem: if SUSY is correct, how will we know where we lie in the MSSM (or extended MSSM) parameter space? • Proposals for solving the fine tuning problems associated with the “little hierarchy” • Ideas for solving the SUSY flavor problem and their embedding in string theory • Simplified models of dynamical SUSY breaking building on recent developments such as simple models of metastability, retrofitting of O’Raifeartaigh and Polonyi models, and so forth • Geometric engineering (e.g. using branes at Calabi-Yau singularities) of field theories which exhibit DSB • Warped SUSY breaking and flux duals of DSB models in string theory • Alternative models to SUSY at the LHC: top down motivations and bottom up constructions • Cosmology of models of SUSY breaking: inflation, finite temperature dynamics and vacuum selection

Participants: The following is a list of possible participants of the proposed workshop. Those with a ∗ have indicated interest in participating in such a workshop. * Acharya, Bobby (ICTP) * Adams, Allan (MIT) * Aganagic, Mina (UC Berkeley) * Argurio, Riccardo (Brussels) * Arkani-Hamed, Nima (Harvard) Bagger, Jonathan (Johns Hopkins) * Becker, Katrin (Texas A and M) * Becker, Melanie (Texas A and M) * Bertolini, Matteo (SISSA) * Bousso, Raphael (UC Berkeley) Carpenter, Linda (UCSC) Choi, Ki-woon (KIAS) * Cohen, Andy (Boston) * Csaki, Csaba (Cornell) * Cvetic, Mirjam (University of Pennsylvania) * Denef, Frederik (Harvard)

3 * DeWolfe, Oliver (CU Boulder) Diaconescu, Duiliu (Rutgers) Dimopoulos, Savas (Stanford) Dine, Michael (UCSC) * Douglas, Michael (Rutgers) * Dvali, Gia (NYU) Dymarsky, Anatoly (Stanford) Feng, Jonathan (UC Irvine) Fischler, Willy (Texas, Austin) Florea, Bogdan (SLAC) Franco, Sebastian (Princeton) * Giddings, Steve (UCSB) * Giudice, Gian (CERN) Hall, Lawrence (UC Berkeley) Intriligator, Ken (UCSD) Jockers, Hans (Stanford) * Kane, Gordy (University of Michigan) Kaplunovsky, Vadim (Texas, Austin) Kitano, Ryuichiro (SLAC) * Klebanov, Igor (Princeton) Kumar, Piyush (UC Berkeley) * Kutasov, David (Chicago) * Langacker, Paul (University of Pennsylvania) Lawrence, Albion (Brandeis) Luty, Markus (UC Davis) * McAllister, Liam (Cornell) * McGreevy, John (MIT) * Moore, Greg (Rutgers) Murayama, Hitoshi (UC Berkeley) Nelson, Ann (University of Washington) * Ooguri, Hirosi (Caltech) Ookouchi, Yutaka (Caltech) Papadodimas, Kyriakos (Amsterdam) Pierce, Aaron (University of Michigan)

4 * Pomarol, Alex (IFAE) * Raby, Stuart (Ohio State) Randall, Lisa (Harvard) * Rattazzi, Riccardo (Lausanne) * Schmaltz, Martin (Boston University) * Schulz, Michael (Bryn Mawr) Schuster, Philip (Stanford) * Seiberg, Nathan (IAS) * Shelton, Jessie (Rutgers) Shigemori, Masaki (Caltech) Shih, David (Harvard) Shirman, Yuri (UC Irvine) * Shiu, Gary (University of Wisconsin, Madison) Strassler, Matt (University of Washington) Sundrum, Raman (Johns Hopkins) * Taylor, Wati (MIT) * Terning, John (UC Davis) Thaler, Jessie (UC Berkeley) * Thomas, Scott (Rutgers) Toro, Natalie (SLAC) * Trivedi, Sandip (TIFR) * Uranga, Angel (Madrid) * Vafa, Cumrun (Harvard) * Verlinde, Herman (Princeton) Volansky, Tomer (Harvard) * Wacker, Jay (SLAC) * Walcher, Johannes (IAS) Weigand, Timo (University of Pennsylvania) Weiner, Neal (NYU)

Contact Person: Shamit Kachru

Organizer responsible for working to ensure diversity: Shamit Kachru We will advertise the workshop widely, and pay special attention to recruiting participants from under-represented groups by soliciting their applications directly. We will consider diversity in making our recommendations for admission.