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Karim Benakli

Publications and source records attributed to Karim Benakli.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
arXiv2016

The Di-Photon Excess in a Perturbative SUSY Model

We show that a 750 GeV di-photon excess as reported by the ATLAS and CMS experiments can be reproduced by the Minimal Dirac Gaugino Supersymmetric Standard Model (MDGSSM) without the need of any ad-hoc addition of new states. The scalar resonance is identified with the spin-0 partner of the Dirac bino. We perform a thorough analysis of constraints coming from the mixing of the scalar with the Higgs boson, the stability of the vacuum and the requirement of perturbativity of the couplings up to very high energy scales. We exhibit examples of regions of the parameter space that respect all the constraints while reproducing the excess. We point out how trilinear couplings that are expected to arise in supersymmetry-breaking mediation scenarios, but were ignored in the previous literature on the subject, play an important role.

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arXiv2016

On Swift Gravitons

We use the method of characteristics to study superluminal graviton (thereof called swift graviton) propagation in theories of higher curvature gravity of the form $($Riemann$)^2$, $($Riemann$)^3$, $\nabla^2 ($Riemann$)^2$ and $($Riemann$)^4$. We consider a pp-wave background. When probed by gravitons with an appropriate polarisation, several of the gravitational theories under consideration exhibit characteristic hypersurfaces outside the flat spacetime light-cone.

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arXiv2015

Sequestered gravity in gauge mediation

We present a novel mechanism of supersymmetry breaking embeddable in string theory and simultaneously sharing the main advantages of (sequestered) gravity and gauge mediation. It is driven by a Scherk-Schwarz deformation along a compact extra dimension, transverse to a D-brane stack supporting the supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. This fixes the magnitude of the gravitino mass, together with that of the gauginos of a bulk gauge group, at a scale as high as $10^{10}$ GeV. Supersymmetry breaking is mediated to the observable sector dominantly by gauge interactions using massive messengers transforming non-trivially under the bulk and Standard Model gauge groups and leading to a neutralino LSP as dark matter candidate. The Higgsino mass $μ$ and soft Higgs-bilinear B$μ$-term could be generated at the same order of magnitude as the other soft terms by effective supergravity couplings as in the Giudice-Masiero mechanism.

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arXiv2015

Off-trail SUSY

We present two distinct topics: I) We describe the propagation of a spin-3/2 state in a background which preserves invariance under space translations and rotations but not under Lorentz boost transformations. We start by building a generalisation of the Volkov-Akulov Lagrangian for a goldstino in a fluid. A super-Higgs mechanism leads to the modified Rarita-Schwinger Lagrangian describing a slow gravitino. We identify the physical propagating degrees of freedom and derive the corresponding equations of motion. This includes some new results. II) Fake Split Supersymmetry Models are proposed to alleviate some of the problems of the original Split SUSY. In particular it is no more necessary to restrict to a Mini-Split scenario as higher values of the supersymmetry breaking scale (Mega-Split) are now allowed. The FSSM relies on swapping the higgsinos for new states in identical gauge group representations but different Yukawa couplings.

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arXiv2015

(O)Mega Split

We study two realisations of the Fake Split Supersymmetry Model (FSSM), the simplest model that can easily reproduce the experimental value of the Higgs mass for an arbitrarily high supersymmetry scale, as a consequence of swapping higgsinos for equivalent states, fake higgsinos, with suppressed Yukawa couplings. If the LSP is identified as the main Dark matter component, then a standard thermal history of the Universe implies upper bounds on the supersymmetry scale, which we derive. On the other hand, we show that renormalisation group running of soft masses above the supersymmetry scale barely constrains the model - in stark contrast to Split Supersymmetry - and hence we can have a "Mega Split" spectrum even with all of these assumptions and constraints, which include the requirements of a correct relic abundance, a gluino life-time compatible with Big Bang Nucleosynthesis and absence of signals in present direct detection experiments of inelastic dark matter. In an appendix we describe a related scenario, Fake Split Extended Supersymmetry, which enjoys similar properties.

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arXiv2014

(Pseudo)goldstinos, SUSY fluids, Dirac gravitino and gauginos

We review the emergence and fate of goldstinos in different frameworks. First, we consider a super-Higgs mechanism when supersymmetry breaking is induced by neither an F-term nor a D-term but related to a more general stress energy-momentum tensor. This allows us to build a novel Lagrangian that describes the propagation of a spin-3/2 state in a fluid. Then we briefly review the ubiquitous pseudo-goldstinos when breaking supersymmetry in an extra dimension. We remind that the fermion (gravitino or gaugino) soft masses can be tuned to be of Dirac-type. Finally, we briefly connect the latter to the study of models with Dirac-type gaugino masses and stress the advantage of having both an F and a D-term sizable contributions for the hierarchies of soft-terms as well as for minimizing R-symmetry breaking.

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arXiv2014

The Slow Gravitino

When the supersymmetry breaking sector is a fluid background, Lorentz invariance is broken spontaneously. The super-Higgs mechanism leads to a gravitino Lagrangian with Lorentz symmetry violating terms. We analyse the resulting field equations and constraints. We identify the physical spin 3/2 and spin 1/2 helicity states, derive their equations of motion and construct the propagator. The violation of Lorentz symmetry implies that the longitudinal mode has a non-relativistic dispersion relation, whose speed is lower than the speed of light. We briefly comment on possible implications to gravitino cosmology and phenomenology.

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arXiv2014

A Fake Split Supersymmetry Model for the 126 GeV Higgs

We consider a scenario where supersymmetry is broken at a high energy scale, out of reach of the LHC, but leaves a few fermionic states at the TeV scale. The particle content of the low-energy effective theory is similar to that of Split Supersymmetry. However, the gauginos and higgsinos are replaced by fermions carrying the same quantum numbers but having different couplings, which we call fake gauginos and fake higgsinos. We study the prediction for the light-Higgs mass in this Fake Split SUSY Model (FSSM). We find that, in contrast to Split or high-scale supersymmetry, a 126 GeV Higgs boson is easily obtained even for arbitrarily high values of the supersymmetry scale. For a supersymmetry scale greater than roughly 100 PeV, the Higgs mass is almost independent of the supersymmetry scale and the stop mixing parameter, while the observed value is achieved for tan beta between 1.3 and 1.8 depending on the gluino mass.

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arXiv2013

The Super-Higgs Mechanism in Fluids

Supersymmetry is spontaneously broken when the field theory stress-energy tensor has a non-zero vacuum expectation value. In local supersymmetric field theories the massless gravitino and goldstino combine via the super-Higgs mechanism to a massive gravitino. We study this mechanism in four-dimensional fluids, where the vacuum expectation value of the stress-energy tensor breaks spontaneously both supersymmetry and Lorentz symmetry. We consider both constant as well as space-time dependent ideal fluids. We derive a formula for the gravitino mass in terms of the fluid velocity, energy density and pressure. We discuss some of the phenomenological implications.

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arXiv2012

Dirac Gauginos and the 125 GeV Higgs

We investigate the mass, production and branching ratios of a 125 GeV Higgs in models with Dirac gaugino masses. We give a discussion of naturalness, and describe how deviations from the Standard Model in the key Higgs search channels can be simply obtained. We then perform parameter scans using a SARAH package upgrade, which produces SPheno code that calculates all relevant quantities, including electroweak precision and flavour constraint data, to a level of accuracy previously impossible for this class of models. We study three different variations on the minimal Dirac gaugino extension of the (N)MSSM.

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arXiv2011

Dirac Gauginos: A User Manual

The issue of a Majorana, Dirac or pseudo-Dirac mass for gauginos must not be reduced to a question of an extension of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model by extra states, parameters and phenomenological implications. On the contrary, it is intimately related to the fundamental issue of the realization of new symmetries in nature, R-symmetries. We present here a very dense compilation of the main features of models with (pseudo-)Dirac gauginos.

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arXiv2011

Generating mu and Bmu in models with Dirac Gauginos

We consider the extension of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model by Dirac masses for the gauginos. We study the possibility that the same singlet that pairs up with the bino, to form a Dirac fermion, is used to generate mu and Bmu terms through its vacuum expectation value. For this purpose, we assume that, in the Higgs potential, the necessary R-symmetry breaking originates entirely from a superpotential term cubic in the singlet and discuss the implications for the spectrum of the model.

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arXiv2010

Disordered Extra Dimensions

A very large extra dimension may contain many localized branes. We discuss the possibility to formulate such models as a spin system where each spin indicates the supersymmetry direction preserved by the corresponding brane. In the evolution of the universe, the extra dimensions might have ended into a vacuum made of patches with different orientation of the spins, responsible for the observed breaking of supersymmetry. We discuss the limit where the separation of these patches is by very thin defects described as localization of gravitino masses.

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arXiv2008

Brane-Worlds Pseudo-Goldstinos

We consider a space-time with extra dimensions containing sectors, branes and bulk, that communicate only through gravitational interactions. In each sector, if considered separately, supersymmetry could be spontaneously broken, leading to the appearance of Goldstinos. However, when taken all together, only certain combinations of the latter states turn out to be true ``would be Goldstinos'', eaten by the gravitinos. The other (orthogonal) combinations, we call pseudo-Goldstinos, remain in the low energy spectrum. We discuss explicitly how this happen in the simplest set-up of five-dimensional space compactified on S^1/Z_2 . Our results divide into two parts that can be considered separately. First, we build an extension of the bulk five-dimensional supergravity, by a set of new auxiliary fields, that allows coupling it to branes where supersymmetry is spontaneously broken. Second, we discuss in details the super Higgs mechanism in the R_ξand unitary gauges, in the presence of both of a bulk Scherk-Schwarz mechanism and brane localized F-terms. This leads us to compute the gravitino mass and provide explicit formulae for the pseudo-Goldstinos spectrum.

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arXiv2006

Splitting Extended Supersymmetry

We show how splitting supersymmetry reconciles a class of intersecting brane models with unification. The gauge sector in these models arises in multiplets of extended supersymmetry while matter states are in N=1 representations. A deformation of the angles between the branes gives large masses to squarks and sleptons, as well as supersymmetry breaking contributions to other string states. The latter generate at one-loop heavy Dirac masses for Winos and gluinos and can induce a mass term for the Higgsino doublets. We find that this scenario is compatible with gauge coupling unification at high scale for both cases where the gauge sector is N=2 and N=4 supersymmetric. Moreover a neutralino, combination of neutral Higgsinos and Binos, is a natural candidate for dark matter.

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arXiv1999

A Note on New Sources of Gaugino Masses

In IIB orientifold models, the singlet twisted moduli appear in the tree-level gauge kinetic function. They might be responsible for generating gaugino masses if they acquire non-vanishing F-terms. We discuss some aspects of this new possibility, such as the size of gaugino masses and their non-universalities. A possible brane setting is presented to illustrate the usefulness of these new sources.

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arXiv1999

Small Instantons and Weak Scale String Theory

We consider heterotic string compactifications to four dimensions when instantons shrink to zero size. If the standard model gauge group originates from the new gauge symmetry associated with the small instantons singularity, then the weakly or strongly coupled heterotic string scales can be taken to be arbitrarily low. The SO(32) and E_8\times E_8 gauge groups can then be very weakly coupled even at the string scale and behave as non-abelian global symmetries. We comment on a possible role of small instantons in supersymmetry breaking.

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