Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2002 iii Paper 68 3 Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use Planck units and restrict to the physical Kähler metric domainPut and , so that . There are no gauged interactions specified, hence no additional D-term scalar potential. The supergravity F-term potential is , with . Its Kähler covariant derivatives of a superpotential areThe nonzero metric entries areThe determinant of this block is , so it is positive definite. With the inverse-index convention , the raised components areKeeping these complex-conjugate off-diagonal entries in their correct index positions is essential.
To exhibit the no-scale supergravity cancellation, write the norm asHere . The term cancels the negative term in the supergravity F-term potential. The result is the nonnegative scalar potentialThis is the matter-logarithm no-scale potential, specialized to the exponential superpotential.
Choose the supergravity auxiliary field convention . Substitution into the full inverse Kähler metric givesAn overall auxiliary-field phase is conventional. The dependence of cancels between the two metric terms. If all three auxiliary fields vanished at a finite physical point, would force , would force , and would then force . Thus is necessary. For any nontrivial choice of , supersymmetry is broken at every finite physical point. The allowed exception , is supersymmetric; the statement cannot hold for all arbitrary parameters without this qualification.
The no-scale volume runaway criterion also determines whether the minimum is attained. For fixed , differentiation with respect to givesIt is negative unless both numerators vanish. Therefore a finite stationary vacuum must satisfyEvery such point is a global minimum with . For , setting and reduces existence toThe derivative of the magnitude function is . It rises from at the excluded boundary to at , then falls to zero. Consequently a finite zero-energy minimum exists exactly whenor in the separate trivial family . There is one positive root for , two for , and one double root at equality. If only one of vanishes, or exceeds this maximum, there is no finite minimum: the infimum is zero as . Calling this runaway a finite zero-energy vacuum would be incorrect.
At a nontrivial zero-energy minimum, , and the auxiliary expectation values reduce toThis explicitly verifies supersymmetry breaking with zero vacuum energy in no-scale supergravity. Both real components of are exact flat directions of a scalar potential on the minimum locus. Away from that locus, is still absent from the potential, but is not flat. At a minimum, is lifted at quartic order: at fixed , . A zero quadratic mass does not make an exact flat direction. The quartic stabilization at a double no-scale root likewise gives a vanishing quadratic mass, but no exact flat direction, for at . For , the whole family has both and flat and supersymmetry unbroken.