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De Sitter Vacua from Matter Superpotentials

Oleg Lebedev, Hans Peter Nilles, Michael Ratz

TL;DR

The paper tackles the challenge of obtaining de Sitter or Minkowski vacua in string-inspired supergravity by exploring uplifting through hidden matter interactions rather than D-terms. It shows a no-go for dS vacua with a single modulus and a classical Kähler potential, but demonstrates that introducing a hidden matter field $C$ with a nonperturbative, $T$-dependent superpotential enables $V_0 \ge 0$ and SUSY breaking via $F^T$ and $F^C$, with the scale set by gaugino condensation. In the regime where the modulus is heavy, two main soft-terms patterns arise: matter-dominated SUSY breaking with anomaly-mediated gaugino masses, and mirage mediation featuring mixed modulus–anomaly contributions and intermediate-scale gaugino unification. The results provide viable, testable predictions for soft spectra while offering cosmological advantages, such as avoiding moduli and gravitino problems through heavy moduli and tensionless late-time dynamics driven by the $C$ field.

Abstract

Consistent uplifting of AdS vacua in string theory often requires extra light degrees of freedom in addition to those of a (Kaehler) modulus. Here we consider the possibility that de Sitter and Minkowski vacua arise due to hidden sector matter interactions. We find that, in this scheme, the hierarchically small supersymmetry breaking scale can be explained by the scale of gaugino condensation and that interesting patterns of the soft terms arise. In particular, a matter-dominated supersymmetry breaking scenario and a version of the mirage mediation scheme appear in the framework of spontaneously broken supergravity.

De Sitter Vacua from Matter Superpotentials

TL;DR

The paper tackles the challenge of obtaining de Sitter or Minkowski vacua in string-inspired supergravity by exploring uplifting through hidden matter interactions rather than D-terms. It shows a no-go for dS vacua with a single modulus and a classical Kähler potential, but demonstrates that introducing a hidden matter field with a nonperturbative, -dependent superpotential enables and SUSY breaking via and , with the scale set by gaugino condensation. In the regime where the modulus is heavy, two main soft-terms patterns arise: matter-dominated SUSY breaking with anomaly-mediated gaugino masses, and mirage mediation featuring mixed modulus–anomaly contributions and intermediate-scale gaugino unification. The results provide viable, testable predictions for soft spectra while offering cosmological advantages, such as avoiding moduli and gravitino problems through heavy moduli and tensionless late-time dynamics driven by the field.

Abstract

Consistent uplifting of AdS vacua in string theory often requires extra light degrees of freedom in addition to those of a (Kaehler) modulus. Here we consider the possibility that de Sitter and Minkowski vacua arise due to hidden sector matter interactions. We find that, in this scheme, the hierarchically small supersymmetry breaking scale can be explained by the scale of gaugino condensation and that interesting patterns of the soft terms arise. In particular, a matter-dominated supersymmetry breaking scenario and a version of the mirage mediation scheme appear in the framework of spontaneously broken supergravity.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 6 sections, 39 equations, 1 figure.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Minkowski and de Sitter vacua due to matter interactions
  3. No go with a single modulus
  4. A modulus and a matter field
  5. Patterns of the soft masses
  6. Conclusions

Figures (1)

  • Figure 1: The scalar potential in (a) $\mathop{\mathrm{Re}}\nolimits C$, $\mathop{\mathrm{Im}}\nolimits C$ and (b) $\mathop{\mathrm{Re}}\nolimits T$, $\mathop{\mathrm{Im}}\nolimits T$ coordinates. The minimum is at $T=2$, $C=0$.