Effects of heavy modes on vacuum stability in supersymmetric theories

Abstract

We study the effects induced by heavy fields on the masses of light fields in supersymmetric theories, under the assumption that the heavy mass scale is much higher than the supersymmetry breaking scale. We show that the square-masses of light scalar fields can get two different types of significant corrections when a heavy multiplet is integrated out. The first is an indirect level-repulsion effect, which may arise from heavy chiral multiplets and is always negative. The second is a direct coupling contribution, which may arise from heavy vector multiplets and can have any sign. We then apply these results to the sGoldstino mass and study the implications for the vacuum metastability condition. We find that the correction from heavy chiral multiplets is always negative and tends to compromise vacuum metastability, whereas the contribution from heavy vector multiplets is always positive and tends on the contrary to reinforce it. These two effects are controlled respectively by Yukawa couplings and gauge charges, which mix one heavy and two light fields respectively in the superpotential and the Kahler potential. Finally we also comment on similar effects induced in soft scalar masses when the heavy multiplets couple both to the visible and the hidden sector.