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We explore possible extensions of the Weak Gravity Conjecture (WGC) to scalar field theories. To avoid charged black hole remnants, the WGC requires the existence of a particle with a mass $m < g q M_P$, with charge $q$ and U(1) gauge coupling $g$, allowing the decay to shed the black hole charge. Although there is no obvious problem that arises in the absence of a U(1) charge, it has been postulated that gravity must remain the weakest force even when extended to scalar interactions. Quantifying this conjecture may be done by comparing scalar and gravitational amplitudes, or as we advocate here by comparing scattering cross sections. In theories with non-trivial field space geometries, by working out examples with perturbation theory around arbitrary field values and performing tadpole resummations, we argue that the conjecture must be applied only at the extrema of the scalar potential (when expressed in locally canonical coordinates). We consider several toy models in the context of no-scale supergravity and also consider examples of inflationary models., 47 pages, 19 figures

Supergravity theories with non-minimal K\"ahler potentials are characterized by a non-trivial field space manifold with corresponding non-trivial kinetic terms. The scattering amplitudes in these theories can be calculated at fixed background field values by making a field redefinition to Riemann normal coordinates. Because of the K\"ahler structure of supergravity, a more compact method for calculating amplitudes is obtained by a redefinition to K\"ahler normal coordinates. We compare both methods and calculate the explicit transformations and amplitudes for several examples in the context of no-scale supergravity with one and two chiral superfields. We show that in all cases the equivalence of the scattering amplitudes using either Riemann normal or K\"ahler normal coordinates is possible only at extremal points of the scalar potential., Comment: 40 pages, 6 Figures

Anti-D3 branes at the bottom of warped throats, commonly used to uplift the cosmological constant in String-Theory de Sitter proposals, source a plaethora of supersymmetry-breaking fluxes, that can interact nontrivially with other ingredients of the flux compactification. In this paper we perform a complex-structure decomposition of these fluxes, and compute the effect of the (0,3) flux component on the stabilization of K\"ahler moduli via D7-branes gaugino condensation. This allows us to obtain a new constraint on the validity of this stabilization mechanism. This effect does not appear hard to satisfy in de Sitter construction proposals that use long warped throats, but may be problematic in proposals where the warping is small., Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX

We compute the supersymmetry-breaking three-form fluxes generated by the addition of anti-D3 branes at the tip of a Klebanov-Strassler throat. These fluxes give rise to nontrivial terms in the superpotential when the throat is embedded in a flux compactification. We describe these terms both from a ten-dimensional and from a four-dimensional perspective and show that, upon including K\"ahler-moduli stabilization, the resulting potential admits de Sitter minima. Our proposed de Sitter construction does not require additional supersymmetry-breaking (0,3) fluxes, and hence is more minimalist than the KKLT proposal., Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures

We revisit the limits on $R$-parity violation in the minimal supersymmetric standard model. In particular, we focus on the high-scale supersymmetry scenario in which all the sparticles are in excess of the inflationary scale of approximately $10^{13}$ GeV, and thus no sparticles ever come into thermal equilibrium. In this case the cosmological limits, stemming from the preservation of the baryon asymmetry that have been previously applied for weak scale supersymmetry, are now relaxed. We argue that even when sparticles are never in equilibrium, $R$-parity violation is still constrained via higher dimensional operators by neutrino and nucleon experiments and/or insisting on the preservation of a non-zero $B-L$ asymmetry., 29 pages

Free massless scalars have a shift symmetry. This is usually broken by gauge and Yukawa interactions, such that quantum corrections induce a quadratically divergent mass term. In the Standard Model this leads to the hierarchy problem of the electroweak theory, the question why the Higgs mass is so much smaller than the Planck mass. We present an example where a large scalar mass term is avoided by coupling the scalar to an infinite tower of massive states which are obtained from a six-dimensional theory compactified on a torus with magnetic flux. The series of divergent quantum corrections adds up to zero, and we show explicitly that the shift symmetry of the scalar is preserved in the effective four-dimensional theory despite the presence of gauge and Yukawa interaction terms., Comment: 20 pages, 2 figures; some clarifications in abstract and outlook

We consider the possibility that supersymmetry is broken above the inflationary mass scale and that the only "low" energy remnant of supersymmetry is the gravitino with mass of order the EeV scale. The gravitino in this class of models becomes a candidate for the dark matter of the Universe. To avoid the over-production of gravitinos from the decays of the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle we argue that the supersymmetric spectrum must lie above the inflationary mass scale ($M_{\rm SUSY} > 10^{-5} M_{\rm P} \sim 10^{13}$ GeV). Since $m_{3/2} \simeq M_{\rm SUSY}^2/M_{\rm P}$, we expect $m_{3/2} \gtrsim 0.2$ EeV. Cosmological constraints then predict a relatively large reheating temperature between $10^{10}$ and $10^{12}$ GeV., 6 pages, 1 figure. Dedicated to the memory of Pierre Binetruy

We review the effects of heavy scalar fields during inflation in the framework of $\mathcal N = 1$ supergravity. Such heavy scalars can be geometric moduli from string compactifications or stabilizer fields from a different sector of the theory. Even when these fields are heavier than the Hubble scale during inflation, they generically cause backreactions which alter the dynamics of the system. Severe problems may arise when the heavy fields break supersymmetry, which is quite generic for K\"ahler moduli. We illustrate these effects in two examples, chaotic inflation and Starobinsky-like inflation. In chaotic inflation the backreaction of heavy K\"ahler moduli causes a flattening of the quadratic potential. In many setups of Starobinsky-like inflation, however, backreactions spoil the flatness of the plateau., Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures. Contribution to the proceedings of the 18th International Conference `From the Planck Scale to the Electroweak Scale', 25-29 May 2015, Ioannina, Greece

The recent discovery of the Standard Model boson (SMS) and direct searches place new constraints and a new perspective on New Physics models. I mostly review supersymmetric model building, with special emphasizes on predictions of flavor models on superpartner spectra and inverted hierarchy models, mini-split models, very low-scale supersymmetry breaking predictions and some string theory inspired low-energy spectra., Comment: 9 pages, talk presented at Rencontres de Moriond EW2013, La Thuile, march 2-9 2013, Conference C13-03-02

We consider the possibility that supersymmetry is broken at a low scale, within one order of magnitude above the TeV scale. In such a case, the degrees of freedom associated with the spontaneous breaking of supersymmetry, the goldstino fermion and its scalar superpartner (the sgoldstino), can have significant interactions with the Standard Model particles and their superpartners. We discuss some characteristic processes, involving the goldstino and the sgoldstino, and the collider signatures they give rise to. These signatures involve scalar resonances in the di-photon, di-jet, di-boson and di-tau channels, the possible relation between these resonances and deviations in the Higgs couplings as well as exotic Higgs decays in the monophoton+MET and the four photon channels., Comment: 5 pages, contribution to the Snowmass 2013

We derive general expressions for soft terms in supergravity where D-terms contribute significantly to the supersymmetry breaking. Such D-terms can produce large splitting between scalar and fermionic partners in the spectrum. By requiring that supersymmetry breaking sets the cosmological constant to zero, we then parameterize the soft terms when D-terms dominate over F-terms or are comparable to them. We present an application of our results to the split supersymmetry scenario and briefly address the issue of moduli stabilisation., Comment: 6 Pages, no figures. To appear in proceedings of the XXXXth Rencontres de Moriond "Electroweak Interactions and Unified Theories", La Thuile, Italy, March 5-12, 2005; V2 Typos in eq.(9) corrected and other improvements

A new mechanism for generating neutrino masses without a high-energy mass scale is proposed. The mechanism needs a fundamental mass scale M in the 100-1000 TeV region and a minimal field content beyond the Standard Model one containing a pair of fermion singlets and a pair of weak doublet fermions for each neutrino mass, all of them with a mass of order M. The neutrino mass appears by a multiple seesaw-type tree-level diagram. We provide an explicit model based on supersymmetry and an abelian symmetry which provides the required fermion mass matrix. The mechanism is natural in the context of string theories with a low fundamental scale. Within an explicit example where the abelian symmetry is also responsible for the generation of fermion masses and mixings, we give a hint relating the fermion mass matrices and the weak mixing angle. By assuming the weak-strong couplings unification, one naturally finds $\sin^2 \theta_w = 1/4$ at the fundamental scale., Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX. Dedicated to Stefan Pokorski on the occasion of his 60th birthday

Within the context of traditional logarithmic grand unification at M_GUT = 10^(16) GeV, we show that it is nevertheless possible to observe certain GUT states such as X and Y gauge bosons at lower scales, perhaps even in the TeV range. We refer to such states as ``GUT precursors.'' Such states offer an interesting alternative possibility for new physics at the TeV scale, even when the scale of gauge coupling unification remains high, and suggest that it may be possible to probe GUT physics directly even within the context of high-scale gauge coupling unification. More generally, our results also suggest that it is possible to construct self-consistent ``hybrid'' models containing widely separated energy scales, and give rise to a Kaluza-Klein realization of non-trivial fixed points in higher-dimensional gauge theories. We also discuss how such theories may be deconstructed at high energies., Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure

In this talk, we summarize our recent proposal for lowering the scale of grand unification to the TeV range though the appearance of extra spacetime dimensions. Particular emphasis is placed on the perturbativity and predictivity of our scenario, as well as its sensitivity to unification-scale effects. (Proceedings of invited talks given by KRD at PASCOS '98; by TG at the European Network Meeting ``From the Planck Scale to the Electroweak Scale''; and by KRD and TG at SUSY '98.), Comment: 9 pages, LaTeX, 2 figures. Talk Proceedings

We analyze in detail supersymmetry breaking by compactification of the fifth dimension in M-theory in the compactification pattern $11d \to 5d \to 4d$ and find that a superpotential is generated for the complex fields coming from $5d$ hypermultiplets, namely the dilaton $S$ and the complex structure moduli. Using general arguments it is shown that these fields are always stabilized such that they don't contribute to supersymmetry breaking, which is completely saturated by the K\"ahler moduli coming from vector multiplets. It is shown that this mechanism is the strong-coupling analog of the Rohm-Witten quantization of the antisymmetric tensor field strength of string theories. The effect of a gaugino condensate on one of the boundaries is also considered., Comment: 16 pages, LaTex, no figures

It has been argued that supergravity models of inflation with vanishing sound speeds, $c_s$, lead to an unbounded growth in the production rate of gravitinos. We consider several models of inflation to delineate the conditions for which $c_s = 0$. In models with unconstrained superfields, we argue that the mixing of the goldstino and inflatino in a time-varying background prevents the uncontrolled production of the longitudinal modes. This conclusion is unchanged if there is a nilpotent field associated with supersymmetry breaking with constraint ${\bf S^2} =0$, i.e. sgoldstino-less models. Models with a second orthogonal constraint, ${\bf S(\Phi-\bar{\Phi})} =0$, where $\bf{\Phi}$ is the inflaton superfield, which eliminates the inflatino, may suffer from the over-production of gravitinos. However, we point out that these models may be problematic if this constraint originates from a UV Lagrangian, as this may require using higher derivative operators. These models may also exhibit other pathologies such as $c_s > 1$, which are absent in theories with the single constraint or unconstrained fields., Comment: 12 pages

We consider a 5D extension of the DFSZ axion model that addresses both the axion quality and fermion mass hierarchy problems, and predicts flavour-dependent, off-diagonal axion-fermion couplings. The axion is part of a 5D complex scalar field charged under a U(1)$_{PQ}$ symmetry that is spontaneously broken in the bulk, and is insensitive to explicit PQ breaking on the UV boundary. Bulk Standard Model fermions interact with two Higgs doublets that can be localized on the UV boundary or propagate in the bulk to explain the fermion masses and mixings. When the Higgs doublets are localized on the UV boundary, they induce flavour diagonal couplings between the fermions and the axion. However, when the Higgs doublets propagate in the bulk, the overlap of the axion and fermion profiles generates flavour off-diagonal couplings. The effective scale of these off-diagonal couplings in both the quark and lepton sectors can be as small as $10^{11}$ GeV, and therefore will be probed in future precision flavour experiments., Comment: 40 pages, 13 figures

Proceedings of Corfu Summer Institute 2019 'School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity' — PoS(CORFU2019) - Sissa Medialab Trieste, Italy, 2020. - ISBN - doi:10.22323/1.376.0117 19th Hellenic School and Workshops on Elementary Particle Physics and Gravity, CORFU2019, Corfu, Greece, 31 Aug 2019 - 25 Sep 2019; Sissa Medialab Trieste, Italy, 1789068 21 pp. (2020). doi:10.22323/1.376.0117, We study the weak gravity conjecture in non-supersymmetric string theory setups. Precisely, those are type I string theory with supersymmetry broken à la Scherk-Schwarz and open strings on D branes wrapped around magnetized tori in type II string theory. We compute long-range interactions between identical branes at one-loop and compare them to the weak gravity conjecture for higher-degree forms. In our examples, SUSY breaking generates interactions between branes, which are not anymore BPS, in such a way that the weak gravity conjecture is verified. In type I with the Scherk-Schwarz mechanism, the tension of the branes is reduced by one-loop quantum effects, so that there are long-range repulsive forces. The correlation of the non-vanishing brane potential with the presence of a running modulus and of possible D branes bound states nicely connects to other swampland conjectures. For magnetized branes in type II strings, we check that non-BPS branes experience a long-range repulsion whenever the open string spectrum is tachyon-free. Ultimately, the role of stringy objects in the discussion makes it compelling to further understand swampland conjectures in strings with broken SUSY, let alone their phenomenological relevance., Published by Sissa Medialab Trieste, Italy

Journal of high energy physics 03(3), 070 (2021). doi:10.1007/JHEP03(2021)070, Intersecting D-brane models and their T-dual magnetic compactifications provide an attractive framework for particle physics, allowing for chiral fermions and supersymmetry breaking. Generically, magnetic compactifications have tachyons that are usually removed by Wilson lines. However, quantum corrections prevent local minima for Wilson lines. We therefore study tachyon condensation in the simplest case, the magnetic compactification of type I string theory on a torus to eight dimensions. We find that tachyon condensation restores supersymmetry, which is broken by the magnetic flux, and we compute the mass spectrum of vector- and hypermultiplets. The gauge group $\text{SO}(32)$ is broken to $\text{USp}(16)$. We give arguments that the vacuum reached by tachyon condensation corresponds to the unique 8d superstring theory already known in the literature, with discrete $B_{ab}$ background or, in the T-dual version, the type IIB orientifold with three $\text{O}7_-$-planes, one $\text{O}7_+$-plane and eight D7-branes coincident with the $\text{O}7_+$-plane. The ground state after tachyon condensation is supersymmetric and has no chiral fermions., Published by SISSA, [Trieste]