Phenomenology of supersymmetry breaking

• Main Author: Dolan, M. J.
• Published: University of Cambridge 2010
• Subjects: 530.1
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.598584

In the introductory chapter 1 review the hierarchy problem and some other unresolved issues in the Standard Model, and introduce the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model as a possible resolution of these issues. I review different mechanisms of supersymmetry breaking and examples from each class. I discuss the effects of superparticles on indirect Standard Model observables which will be used in the thesis, illustrating in particular the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. The next part of the thesis examines the phenomenological implications of two models, Pure General Gauge Mediation and the Large Volume Scenario. I fit the models to low energy data and focus on the LHC and dark matter phenomenology, as well as issues of fine-tuning and the structure of the parameter space. In the final chapter I use indirect observables to calculate the Bayesian evidence for specific avatars of supersymmetry breaking from the introduction, using a statistical sampling technique. I discuss the prior dependence of the fits and the effects of the form of dark matter relic density constraint used. I quantify the constraining power and statistical pull of individual observables using the Kullback-Leibler divergence and present the constraints on the parameter space of the minimal anomaly and minimal gauge mediation models.