Low scale supersymmetry (SUSY) is a compelling solution to the electroweak hierarchy problem. However, increasingly strong limits on the masses of superpartners, first from LEP and now the LHC, mean that the simplest models require significant fine tuning. This thesis is dedicated to the study of a possible alternative low energy superpartner spectrum, natural SUSY, in which only superparticles directly involved in stabilising the electroweak scale are light, alleviating collider limits and potentially reducing tuning. After reviewing how low scale SUSY is motivated by the hierarchy problem, we build a model of SUSY breaking and mediation that successfully generates a natural SUSY spectrum. This also suppresses the first two generation fermion Yukawas, and leads to small parameters in the hidden sector, which are required for successful SUSY breaking. A challenge in models of natural SUSY is raising the physical Higgs mass to 125 GeV, and we study the possibility that this could occur through the addition of a singlet to the theory. If stops are very light, the coupling of the singlet to the Higgs needs to be so large that it becomes nonperturbative before the scale of grand unification, raising the concern that precision gauge coupling unification may be upset. However, we find that this is not necessarily the case. Rather it is possible this could correct for the present ∽ 3% discrepancy in the two-loop minimal supersymmetric model's unification prediction. We then turn to the fine tuning in models of natural SUSY, emphasising that this should be measured with respect to the theory's ultraviolet (UV) parameters. We show that the first two generation sfermions can be made relatively heavy, beyond LHC reach, without introducing tuning. However, the gluino generates a significant tuning through the stops during the renormalisation group flow. As a result, there is no fine tuning benefit in reducing the stop masses below (50 - 75)% of the weak scale gluino mass, and we obtain strong lower bounds on the tuning of theories compatible with collider limits. We also study theories with Dirac gauginos, which have relatively low fine tuning even if the scale of mediation is high. Finally, we consider the effect of relaxing a common assumption and allowing the hidden SUSY breaking sector to modify the running of the visible sector soft masses. This may plausibly occur in realistic models and could dramatically reduce the fine tuning of SUSY theories.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:658486 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Hardy, Edward |
| Contributors | March-Russell, John |
| Publisher | University of Oxford |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:832194dd-c075-4f18-bc88-3822fa745aea |
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