Last Updated
September 13, 2010

Modern Supersymmetry: Dynamics and Duality

by John Terning

book cover

CONTENTS

1 Introduction to supersymmetry 1
1.1 The unreasonable effectiveness of the Standard Model 1
1.2 SUSY algebra 4
1.3 SUSY representations 8
1.4 Extended SUSY 11
1.5 Central charges 15
References 17
2 SUSY Lagrangians 19
2.1 The free Wess-Zumino model 19
2.2 Commutators of SUSY transformations 21
2.3 The supercurrent and the SUSY algebra 24
2.4 The interacting Wess-Zumino model 26
2.5 SUSY Yang-Mills 29
2.6 SUSY gauge theories 30
2.7 Superspace 34
2.8 N = 0 SUSY 38
2.9 Exercises 41
References 41
3 SUSY gauge theories 43
3.1 Symmetries and group theory 43
3.2 Renormalization group 47
3.3 Quadratic divergence of the squark mass 52
3.4 Flat directions (classical moduli space) 53
3.5 The super Higgs mechanism 56
3.6 Exercises 60
References 61
4 The minimal supersymmetric standard model 62
4.1 Particles, sparticles, and their interactions 62
4.2 Electroweak symmetry breaking 67
4.3 The sparticle spectrum 72
4.4 Gauge coupling unification 77
4.5 Radiative electroweak symmetry breaking 78
4.6 One-loop correction to the Higgs mass 79
4.7 Precision electroweak measurements 81
4.8 Problems with flavor and CP 82
4.9 Exercises 86
References 86
5 SUSY breaking and the MSSM 90
5.1 Spontaneous SUSY breaking at tree-level 90
5.2 SUSY breaking scenarios 93
5.3 The goldstino 95
5.4 The goldstino theorem 97
5.5 Exercises 99
References 99
6 Gauge mediation 101
6.1 Messengers of SUSY breaking 101
6.2 RG calculation of soft masses 102
6.3 Gauge mediation and the mu problem105
6.4 Exercise 106
References 106
7 Nonperturbative results 108
7.1 Monopoles 108
7.2 Anomalies in the path integral 113
7.3 Gauge anomalies 117
7.4 't Hooft's anomaly matching 118
7.5 Instantons 119
7.6 Instantons in broken gauge theories 121
7.7 NSVZ exact beta function 123
7.8 Superconformal symmetry 125
References 130
8 Holomorphy 133
8.1 Non-renormalization theorems 133
8.2 Wavefunction renormalization 134
8.3 Integrating out 135
8.4 The holomorphic gauge coupling 136
8.5 Gaugino condensation 139
8.6 NSVZ revisited 141
8.7 Exercises 143
References 143
9 The Affleck-Dine-Seiberg superpotential 145
9.1 Symmetry and holomorphy 145
9.2 Consistency of W_ADS : moduli space 148
9.3 Consistency of W_ADS : mass perturbations 150
9.4 Generating W_ADS from instantons 152
9.5 Generating W_ADS from gaugino condensation 154
9.6 Vacuum structure 155
9.7 Exercise 155
References 155
10 Seiberg duality for SUSY QCD 157
10.1 Phases of gauge theories 157
10.2 The moduli space for F>= N 158
10.3 IR fixed points 160
10.4 Duality 162
10.5 Integrating out a flavor 165
10.6 Consistency 167
10.7 F = N : confinement with chiral symmetry breaking 168
10.8 F = N : consistency checks 171
10.9 F = N + 1: s-confinement 173
10.10 Connection to theories with F > N + 1 176
10.11 Exercises 179
References 179
11 More Seiberg duality 182
11.1 The SO(N) moduli space 182
11.2 Duality for SO(N) 184
11.3 Some special cases 186
11.4 Duality for Sp(2N) 187
11.5 Why chiral gauge theories are interesting 189
11.6 S-Confinement 190
11.7 Deconfinement 192
11.8 Exercises 194
References 194
12 Dynamical SUSY breaking 196
12.1 A rule of thumb for SUSY breaking 196
12.2 The 3-2 model 196
12.3 The SU(5) model 199
12.4 SUSY breaking and deformed moduli spaces 200
12.5 SUSY breaking from baryon runaways 202
12.6 Direct gauge mediation 205
12.7 Single sector models 207
12.8 Exercise 208
References 208
13 The Seiberg-Witten theory 210
13.1 The Coulomb phase of N = 1 SO(N) 210
13.2 Diversion on SO(3) 214
13.3 The dyonic dual 215
13.4 Elliptic curves 217
13.5 N = 2: Seiberg-Witten 221
13.6 The Seiberg-Witten curve 225
13.7 Adding flavors 230
References 231
14 Superconformal field theories 233
14.1 A-Maximization 233
14.2 The simplest chiral SCFT 234
14.3 N = 2 and Argyres-Douglas points 239
14.4 N = 4 and orbifolds 240
References 243
15 Supergravity 246
15.1 Supergravity: on-shell 246
15.2 Supergravity: off-shell 247
15.3 Coupling to matter 249
15.4 10 and 11 dimensions 251
15.5 Five dimensions 258
15.6 Exercises 259
References 259
16 Anomaly and gaugino mediation 262
16.1 "Supergravity" mediation 262
16.2 SUSY breaking 265
16.3 The mu problem 267
16.4 Slepton masses 269
16.5 Gaugino mediation 272
16.6 Exercise 273
References 273
17 Introduction to the AdS/CFT correspondence 275
17.1 D-brane constructions of gauge theories 275
17.2 The supergravity approximation 280
17.3 Spectra of CFT operators and AdS5xS5 KK modes 285
17.4 Waves on AdS5 287
17.5 Nonperturbative static Coulomb potential 289
17.6 Breaking SUSY: finite temperature and confinement 290
17.7 The glueball mass gap 291
17.8 Breaking SUSY: orbifolds 294
17.9 Outlook 296
References 297
Appendix A Spinors and Pauli matrices 301
A.1 Conventions 301
A.2 Fierz and Pauli identities 303
A.3 Propagators 303
Appendix B Group theory 305
B.1 Classical Lie groups 305
B.2 SU(2) 307
B.3 SU(3) 307
B.4 SU(4) 308
References 309
Index 311