arXiv subjects

Jonas Schmidt

Publications and source records attributed to Jonas Schmidt.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Dynamical Matter-Parity Breaking and Gravitino Dark Matter

Scenarios where gravitinos with GeV masses make up dark matter are known to be in tension with high reheating temperatures, as required by e.g. thermal leptogenesis. This tension comes from the longevity of the NLSPs, which can destroy the successful predictions of the standard primordial nucleosynthesis. However, a small violation of matter parity can open new decay channels for the NLSP, avoiding the BBN problems, while being compatible with experimental cosmic-ray constraints. In this paper, we propose a model where matter parity, which we assume to be embedded in the U(1)_{B-L} gauge symmetry, is broken dynamically in a hidden sector at low scales. This can naturally explain the smallness of the matter parity breaking in the visible sector. We discuss the dynamics of the corresponding pseudo Nambu--Goldstone modes of B-L breaking in the hidden sector, and we comment on typical cosmic-ray and collider signatures in our model.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2009

Local Grand Unification in the Heterotic Landscape

We consider the possibility that the unification of the electroweak interactions and the strong force arises from string theory, at energies significantly lower than the string scale. As a tool, an effective grand unified field theory in six dimensions is derived from an anisotropic orbifold compactification of the heterotic string. It is explicitly shown that all anomalies cancel in the model, though anomalous Abelian gauge symmetries are present locally at the boundary singularities. In the supersymmetric vacuum additional interactions arise from higher-dimensional operators. We develop methods that relate the couplings of the effective theory to the location of the vacuum, and find that unbroken discrete symmetries play an important role for the phenomenology of orbifold models. An efficient algorithm for the calculation of the superpotential to arbitrary order is developed, based on symmetry arguments. We furthermore present a correspondence between bulk fields of the orbifold model in six dimensions, and the moduli fields that arise from compactifying four internal dimensions on a manifold with non-trivial gauge background.

hep-th↗

arXiv2009

Light Moduli in Almost No-Scale Models

We discuss the stabilization of the compact dimension for a class of five-dimensional orbifold supergravity models. Supersymmetry is broken by the superpotential on a boundary. Classically, the size $L$ of the fifth dimension is undetermined, with or without supersymmetry breaking, and the effective potential is of no-scale type. The size $L$ is fixed by quantum corrections to the Kähler potential, the Casimir energy and Fayet-Iliopoulos (FI) terms localized at the boundaries. For an FI scale of order $M_\mathrm{GUT}$, as in heterotic string compactifications with anomalous $\U1$ symmetries, one obtains $L \sim 1/M_\mathrm{GUT}$. A small mass is predicted for the scalar fluctuation associated with the fifth dimension, $m_ρ \lesssim m_{3/2}/(L M)$.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2008

Higgs versus Matter in the Heterotic Landscape

In supersymmetric extensions of the standard model there is no basic difference between Higgs and matter fields, which leads to the well known problem of potentially large baryon and lepton number violating interactions. Although these unwanted couplings can be forbidden by continuous or discrete global symmetries, a theoretical guiding principle for their choice is missing. We examine this problem for a class of vacua of the heterotic string compactified on an orbifold. As expected, in general there is no difference between Higgs and matter. However, certain vacua happen to possess unbroken matter parity and discrete $R$-symmetries which single out Higgs fields in the low energy effective field theory. We present a method how to identify maximal vacua in which the perturbative contribution to the $μ$-term and the expectation value of the superpotential vanish. Two vacua are studied in detail, one with two pairs of Higgs doublets and one with partial gauge-Higgs unification.

hep-th↗

arXiv2007

Gauge-Higgs Unification from the Heterotic String

We present a 6D orbifold model on $T^2/\Z2$ which emerges as intermediate step in the compactification of the heterotic string to the supersymmetric standard model in four dimensions. It has $\SU6$ gauge symmetry in the bulk and two pairs of inequivalent fixed points with unbroken $\SU5$ and $\SU2 \times \SU4$ symmetry, respectively. All anomalies are cancelled by the Green-Schwarz mechanism. Two quark-lepton generations are located at the $\SU5$ branes, the third family is composed of split bulk hypermultiplets. The model has vacua with partial or full gauge-Higgs unification and non-vanishing Yukawa couplings which generically avoid the unsuccessful $\SU5$ mass relations.

hep-th↗