2008/06/23 by John Ellis, Joel Giedt, Oleg Lebedev +3 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Black Holes and Theoretical Physics #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.78.075006
published as Phys.Rev.D78:075006,2008 · 24 pages, 4 figures
arxiv created 2008/06/23 · openalex publication_date 2008/10/07 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We examine the possible extension of the parameter space of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model (MSSM), as expressed via the renormalization-group equations in terms of universal soft supersymmetry-breaking terms at the unification scale, to include tachyonic input scalar masses. Many models with negative masses-squared for scalars at the unification scale may be viable because the small sizes of the masses-squared allow them to change signs during the renormalization-group evolution to the electroweak scale. However, in many cases, there is, in addition to the electroweak vacuum, a much deeper high-scale vacuum located along some F- and D-flat direction in the effective potential for the MSSM. We perform a numerical search for such vacua in both the constrained MSSM (CMSSM) and a variant with nonuniversal Higgs masses (NUHM). We discuss the circumstances under which the existence of such a deep charge- and color-breaking vacuum is consistent with standard cosmology. A crucial role is played by the inflation-induced scalar masses, whereas thermal effects are often irrelevant.