Deviations From Newton's Law in Supersymmetric Large Extra Dimensions

Abstract

Deviations from Newton's Inverse-Squared Law at the micron length scale are smoking-gun signals for models containing Supersymmetric Large Extra Dimensions (SLEDs), which have been proposed as approaches for resolving the Cosmological Constant Problem. Just like their non-supersymmetric counterparts, SLED models predict gravity to deviate from the inverse-square law because of the advent of new dimensions at sub-millimeter scales. However SLED models differ from their non-supersymmetric counterparts in three important ways: (i) the size of the extra dimensions is fixed by the observed value of the Dark Energy density, making it impossible to shorten the range over which new deviations from Newton's law must be seen; (ii) supersymmetry predicts there to be more fields in the extra dimensions than just gravity, implying different types of couplings to matter and the possibility of repulsive as well as attractive interactions; and (iii) the same mechanism which is purported to keep the cosmological constant naturally small also keeps the extra-dimensional moduli effectively massless, leading to deviations from General Relativity in the far infrared of the scalar-tensor form. We here explore the deviations from Newton's Law which are predicted over micron distances, and show the ways in which they differ and resemble those in the non-supersymmetric case.