We propose a new higher-dimensional mechanism for solving the hierarchy problem. The weak scale is generated from a large scale of order the Planck scale through an exponential hierarchy. However, this exponential arises not from gauge interactions but from the background metric (which is a slice of AdS 5 spacetime). This mechanism relies on the existence of only a single additional dimension. We demonstrate a simple explicit example of this mechanism with two three-branes, one of which contains the Standard Model fields. The experimental consequences of this scenario are new and dramatic. There are fundamental spin-2 excitations with mass of weak scale order, which are coupled with weak scale as opposed to gravitational strength to the standard model particles. The phenomenology of these models is quite distinct from that of large extra dimension scenarios; none of the current constraints on theories with very large extra dimensions apply.

Conventional wisdom states that Newton's force law implies only four non-compact dimensions. We demonstrate that this is not necessarily true in the presence of a non-factorizable background geometry. The specific example we study is a single 3-brane embedded in five dimensions. We show that even without a gap in the Kaluza-Klein spectrum, four-dimensional Newtonian and general relativistic gravity is reproduced to more than adequate precision.Comment: LaTex, 9 page

We show that in a general hidden sector model, supersymmetry breaking necessarily generates at one-loop a scalar and gaugino mass as a consequence of the super-Weyl anomaly. We study a scenario in which this contribution dominates. We consider the Standard Model particles to be localized on a (3+1)-dimensional subspace or "3-brane" of a higher dimensional spacetime, while supersymmetry breaking occurs off the 3-brane, either in the bulk or on another 3-brane. At least one extra dimension is assumed to be compactified roughly one to two orders of magnitude below the four-dimensional Planck scale. This framework is phenomenologically very attractive; it introduces new possibilities for solving the supersymmetric flavor problem, the gaugino mass problem, the supersymmetric CP problem, and the µ-problem. Furthermore, the compactification scale can be consistent with a unification of gauge and gravitational couplings. We demonstrate these claims in a four-dimensional effective theory below the compactification scale that incorporates the relevant features of the underlying higher dimensional theory and the contribution of the super-Weyl anomaly. Naturalness constraints follow not only from symmetries but also from the higher dimensional origins of the theory. We also introduce additional bulk contributions to the MSSM soft masses. This scenario is very predictive: the gaugino masses, squark masses, and A terms are given in terms of MSSM renormalization group functions.6. Sequestered supersymmetry breaking is very predictive. The ratio of gaugino masses depends on the beta functions, rather than simply the gauge coupling as for the other two scenarios. There is a nearly degenerate wino/zino LSP, of which the zino is the lighter. We predict A-terms proportional to the corresponding Yukawa couplings. 6

Baryogenesis from the coherent production of a scalar condensate along a flat direction of the supersymmetric extension of the standard model (Affleck-Dine mechanism) is investigated. Two important effects are emphasized. First, nonrenormalizable terms in the superpotential can lift standard model flat directions at large field values. Second, the finite energy density in the early universe induces soft potentials with curvature of order the Hubble constant. Both these have important implications for baryogenesis, which requires large squark or slepton expectation values to develop along flat directions. In particular, the induced mass squared must be negative. The resulting baryon to entropy ratio is very insensitive to the details of the couplings and initial conditions, but depends on the dimension of the nonrenormalizable operator in the superpotential which stabilizes the flat direction and the reheat temperature after inflation. Unlike the original scenario, an acceptable baryon asymmetry can result without subsequent entropy releases. In the simplest scenario the baryon asymmetry is generated along the LH u flat direction, and is related to the mass of the lightest neutrino.

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We examine various aspects of the conjectured duality between warped AdS 5 geometries with boundary branes and strongly coupled (broken) conformal field theories coupled to dynamical gravity. We also examine compactifications with 5-d gauge fields, in which case the holographic dual is a broken CFT weakly coupled to dynamical gauge fields in addition to gravity. The holographic picture is used to clarify a number of important phenomenological issues in these and related models, including the questions of black hole production, radius stabilization, early universe cosmology, and gauge coupling unification.

We consider certain supersymmetric configurations of intersecting branes and branes ending on branes and analyze the duality between their open and closed string interpretation. The examples we study are chosen such that we have the lower dimensional brane realizing an n + 1 dimensional conformal field theory on its worldvolume and the higher dimensional one introducing a conformal boundary. We also consider two CFTs, possibly with different central charges, interacting along a common conformal boundary. We show with a probe calculation that the dual closed string description is in terms of gravity in an AdS n+2 bulk with an AdS n+1 defect or two different AdS n+2 spaces joined along a defect. We also comment briefly on the expected back-reaction.

The cosmological moduli problem is discussed in the framework of sequestered sector/anomaly-mediated supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking. In this scheme, the gravitino mass (corresponding to the moduli masses) is naturally 10 − 100 TeV, and hence the lifetime of the moduli fields can be shorter than ∼ 1 sec. As a result, the cosmological moduli fields should decay before big-bang nucleosynthesis starts. Furthermore, in the anomaly-mediated scenario, the lightest superparticle (LSP) is the Wino-like neutralino. Although the large annihilation cross section means the thermal relic density of the Wino LSP is too small to be the dominant component of cold dark matter (CDM), moduli decays can produce Winos in sufficient abundance to constitute CDM. If Winos are indeed the dark matter, it will be highly advantageous from the point of view of detection. If the halo density is dominated by the Wino-like LSP, the detection rate of Wino CDM in Ge detectors can be as large as 0.1 − 0.01 event/kg/day, which is within the reach of the future CDM detection with Ge detector. Furthermore, there is a significant positron signal from pair annihilation of Winos in our galaxy which should give a spectacular signal at AMS. *