arXiv subjects
Publications and source records attributed to Qaisar Shafi.
We consider orbifold GUTs with N=1 supersymmetry in which the Standard Model (SM) gauge couplings are unified at M_GUT =~ 2 x 10^16 GeV with one of the third family (charged) Yukawa couplings. With split supersymmetry the SM Higgs mass is estimated to be 131 +/- 10 GeV for gauge-top quark Yukawa unification, which increases to 146 +/- 8 GeV for gauge-bottom quark (or gauge-tau lepton) Yukawa unification.
We discuss hybrid inflation in supersymmetric flipped SU(5) model such that the cosmic microwave anisotropy $δT/T$ is essentially proportional to $(M /M_{P})^2$, where $M$ denotes the symmetry breaking scale and $M_{P}$ ($=2.4\times 10^{18}$ GeV) is the reduced Planck mass. The magnitude of $M$ determined from $δT/T$ measurements can be consistent with the value inferred from the evolution of SU(3) and SU(2) gauge couplings. In other words, one could state that flipped SU(5) predicts (more precisely `postdicts') $δT/T$. The scalar spectral index $n_s = 0.993\pm 0.007$, the scalar to tensor ratio satisfies $r \lapproxeq 10^{-6}$, while $dn_s/d{\rm ln}k \lapproxeq 4\times 10^{-4}$.
We consider a class of seven-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric orbifold GUTs in which the Standard Model (SM) gauge couplings and one of the Yukawa couplings (top quark, bottom quark or tau lepton) are unified, without low energy supersymmetry, at M_{GUT} \simeq 4 \times 10^{16} GeV. With gauge-top quark Yukawa coupling unification the SM Higgs boson mass is estimated to be 135 \pm 6 GeV, which increases to 144 \pm 4 GeV for gauge-bottom quark (or gauge-tau lepton) Yukawa coupling unification.
Models with fermions in bifundamental representations can lead naturally to family unification as opposed to family replication. Such models typically predict (exotic) color singlet states with fractional electric charge, and magnetic monopoles with multiple Dirac charge. The exotics may be at the TeV scale, and relatively light magnetic monopoles (greater than about 10^7 GeV) can be present in the galaxy with abundance near the Parker bound. We focus on three family SU(4)XSU(3)XSU(3) models.
We explore a realistic supersymmetric SU(2)_L \times SU(2)_R \times U(1)_B-L model spontaneously broken at around 10^12 GeV. The presence of D and F-flat directions gives rise to TeV mass doubly charged particles which can be found at the LHC. We implement TeV scale leptogenesis and employing both type I and II seesaw, the three light neutrinos are partially degenerate with masses in the 0.02-0.1 eV range. The effective mass parameter for neutrinoless double beta decay is 0.03-0.05 eV. We also find the interesting relation tan 2 θ_13 ~ [Δm^2_{\odot} / Δm^2_{atm}] [sin 2 θ_12 /tan 2 θ_23] <~ 0.02.
We present a predictive scheme for fermion masses and mixings based on supersymmetric SO(10) which provides an understanding of the observed hierarchies in the charged fermion sector including CKM mixings. In the neutrino sector bi-large mixing can be realized, while the third leptonic mixing angle $θ_{13}\simeq 0.01 - 0.2$.
It is shown that in SO(10) and SU(5) models having a $U(1)_R$ symmetry, the requirement of breaking the unified group to the Standard Model leads to flat directions in the scalar potential. These can lead to a ``cosmological modulus problem". This is relevant to grand unified models of inflation, where $U(1)_R$ symmetries are often used to insure the flatness of the inflaton potential. A way that the modulus problem might be avoided is discussed.
We implement inflation within a realistic supersymmetric SO(10) model in which the doublet-triplet splitting is realized through the Dimopoulos-Wilczek mechanism, the MSSM $μ$ problem is resolved, and higgsino mediated dimension five nucleon decay is heavily suppressed. The cosmologically unwanted topological defects are inflated away, and from $δT/ T$, the $B-L$ breaking scale is estimated to be of order $10^{16}-10^{17}$ GeV. Including supergravity corrections, the scalar spectral index $n_s = 0.99\pm 0.01$, with $|dn_s/ d{\rm ln}k| \lapproxeq 10^{-3}$.
We implement inflation within a realistic supersymmetric SO(10) model in which the doublet-triplet splitting is realized through the Dimopoulos-Wilczek mechanism, the MSSM $μ$ problem is resolved, and higgsino mediated dimension five nucleon decay is heavily suppressed. The cosmologically unwanted topological defects are inflated away, and from $δT/ T$, the $B-L$ breaking scale is estimated to be of order $10^{16}-10^{17}$ GeV. Including supergravity corrections, the scalar spectral index $n_s = 0.99\pm 0.01$, with $|dn_s/ d{\rm ln}k| \lapproxeq 10^{-3}$.
We propose a hybrid inflation scenario in which the singlet sneutrino, the superpartner of the right-handed neutrino, plays the role of the inflaton. We study a minimal model of sneutrino hybrid inflation in supergravity, where we find a spectral index $n_s \approx 1 + 2 γ$ with $|γ| \lesssim 0.02$, and predict a running spectral index $|d n_s/d\ln k| \ll |γ|$ and a tensor-to-scalar ratio $r \ll γ^2$ for field values well below the Planck scale. In our scenario, the baryon asymmetry of our universe can be explained via non-thermal leptogenesis and a low reheat temperature $T_{RH} \approx 10^{6}$ GeV can be realized.
It has been suggested that the dark energy density ρ_v ~ 10^{-12} eV^4 in the universe is associated with a metastable (false) vacuum, while the true vacuum has a vanishing cosmological constant. By including supergravity corrections we show how this is naturally realized in realistic supersymmetric hybrid inflation models. With a fundamental supersymmetry breaking scale ~ TeV, the LSP is not a suitable candidate for cold dark matter. We consider axion physics to overcome this and simultaneously provide a resolution of the MSSM μproblem.
Within the MSSM framework and with purely anomaly mediated supersymmetry breaking the slepton masses turn out to be tachyonic. We resolve this problem by introducing an anomaly free U(1) gauge symmetry which provides positive $D$-term contributions to sparticle masses squared that are flavor conserving at one loop. Two realistic examples based on SU(5) are presented. With U(1) spontaneously broken at a scale $\sim 10^{16}$ GeV, the right handed neutrinos acquire masses $\stackrel{<}{_\sim}10^{14}$ GeV. This breaking scale of U(1) also plays an important role in the proposed resolution of the MSSM $μ$ problem.
We implement inflation in a supersymmetric SU(5) model with U(1) R-symmetry such that the cosmic microwave anisotropy $δT/T$ is proportional to $(M/M_{\rm Planck})^2$, where $M\sim M_{GUT}=2-3\times 10^{16}$ GeV, the SU(5) breaking scale, and $M_{\rm Planck}=2.4\times 10^{19}$ GeV. The presence of a global $U(1)_X$ symmetry, spontaneously broken also at scale $M_{GUT}$, provides an upper bound $M_{GUT}^2/M_{\rm Planck}\sim 10^{14}$ GeV on the masses of SU(5) singlet right handed neutrinos, which explains the mass scale associated with atmospheric neutrino oscillations. The SU(5) monopoles and $U(1)_X$ cosmic strings are inflated away. Although the doublet-triplet splitting requires fine-tuning, the MSSM $μ$ problem is resolved and dimension five proton decay is strongly suppressed.
We show that a self-tuning mechanism of the cosmological constant could work in 5D non-compact space-time with a $Z_2$ symmetry in the presence of a massless scalar field. The standard model matter fields live only on the 4D brane. The change of vacuum energy on the brane (brane cosmological constant) by, for instance, electroweak and QCD phase transitions, just gives rise to dynamical shifts of the profiles of the background metric and the scalar field in the extra dimension, keeping 4D space-time flat without any fine-tuning. To avoid naked singularities in the bulk, the brane cosmological constant should be negative. We introduce an additional brane-localized 4D Einstein-Hilbert term so as to provide the observed 4D gravity with the non-compact extra dimension. With a general form of brane-localized gravity term allowed by the symmetries, the low energy Einstein gravity is successfully reproduced on the brane at long distances. We show this phenomenon explicitly for the case of vanishing bulk cosmological constant.
Within a democratic approach based on discrete symmetries, we show how the charged lepton mass hierarchies and bilarge neutrino mixings can be realized. For the third mixing angle we find $\te_{13}\sim \sq{\fr{\De m_{\rm sol}^2}{\De m_{\rm atm}^2}}\sim 0.1-0.2$.
We consider five dimensional (5D) supersymmetric SO(10) compactified on the orbifold $S^1/(Z_2\times Z_2')$ such that the SO(10) gauge symmetry is broken on both fixed points (branes), and the residual gauge symmetry is $SU(3)_c\times SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y\times U(1)_X$. We explore one example in which the gauge symmetries on the two branes are respectively $SU(5)\times U(1)_X$ and $SU(4)_c\times SU(2)_L\times SU(2)_R$, and the MSSM gauge symmetry is recovered by the usual Higgs mechanism. We discuss how fermion masses and mixings can be understood in this framework by introducing a flavor $U(1)_F$ symmetry. Unification of the MSSM gauge couplings and proton stability are also considered. An order of magnitude increase in sensitivity could reveal proton decay.
We show that a self-tuning mechanism of the cosmological constant could work in 5D non-compact space-time. The standard model matter fields live only on the 4D brane. The change of vacuum energy on the brane just gives rise to dynamical shifts of the profiles of the background metric and a bulk scalar field in the extra dimension, keeping 4D space-time flat. To obtain the Newtonian potential on the brane, we introduce an additional brane-localized 4D Einstein-Hilbert term.
We discuss inflationary cosmology in a five dimensional SO(10) model compactified on $S^1/(Z_2\times Z_2')$, which yields $SU(3)_c\times SU(2)_L\times U(1)_Y\times U(1)_X$ below the compactification scale. The gauge symmetry $SU(5)\times U(1)_X$ is preserved on one of the fixed points, while ``flipped'' $SU(5)'\times U(1)'_X$ is on the other fixed point. Inflation is associated with $U(1)_X$ breaking, and is implemented through $F$-term scalar potentials on the two fixed points. A brane-localized Einstein-Hilbert term allows both branes to have positive tensions during inflation. The scale of $U(1)_X$ breaking is fixed from $δT/T$ measurements to be around $10^{16}$ GeV, and the scalar spectral index $n=0.98-0.99$. The inflaton field decays into right-handed neutrinos whose subsequent out of equilibrium decay yield the observed baryon asymmetry via leptogenesis.