We investigate basic consequences of the assumption that the mass scale of the perturbative sector responsible for the spontaneous symmetry breaking is generated dynamically in a theory with a large UV scale. It is assumed that in addition to an elem
entary scalar there exists an additional scalar, a modulus, which controls the dynamical hierarchy of scales in the manner similar to that of supersymmetric gaugino condensation. It is shown that a light degree of freedom appears that couples to the gauge bosons and to charged fermions in a specific way which is different from the couplings of the dilaton of the exact scale invariance.
We study models of inflation with two scalar fields and non-canonical kinetic terms, focusing on the case in which the curvature and isocurvature perturbations are strongly coupled to each other. In the regime where a heavy mode can be identified and
integrated out, we clarify the passage from the full two-field model to an effectively single-field description. However, the strong coupling sets a new scale in the system, and affects the evolution of the perturbations as well as the beginning of the regime of validity of the effective field theory. In particular, the predictions of the model are sensitive to the relative hierarchy between the coupling and the mass of the heavy mode. As a result, observables are not given unambiguously in terms of the parameters of an effectively single field model with non-trivial sound speed. Finally, the requirement that the sound horizon crossing occurs within the regime of validity of the effective theory leads to a lower bound on the sound speed. Our analysis is done in an extremely simple toy model of slow-roll inflation, which is chosen for its tractability, but is non-trivial enough to illustrate the richness of the dynamics in non-canonical multi-field models.
Minimal Flavour Violation (MFV) postulates that the only source of flavour changing neutral currents and CP violation, as in the Standard Model, is the CKM matrix. However it does not address the origin of fermion masses and mixing and models that do
usually have a structure that goes well beyond the MFV framework. In this paper we compare the MFV predictions with those obtained in models based on spontaneously broken (horizontal) family symmetries, both Abelian and non-Abelian. The generic suppression of flavour changing processes in these models turns out to be weaker than in the MFV hypothesis. Despite this, in the supersymmetric case, the suppression may still be consistent with a solution to the hierarchy problem, with masses of superpartners below 1 TeV. A comparison of FCNC and CP violation in processes involving a variety of different family quantum numbers should be able to distinguish between various family symmetry models and models satisfying the MFV hypothesis.
We argue that in models of inflation with two scalar fields and non-canonical kinetic terms there is a possibility of obtaining a red tilt of the power spectrum of curvature perturbations from noncanonicality-induced interactions between the curvatur
e and isocurvature perturbations. We describe an extremely simple model realizing this idea, study numerically its predictions for the perturbations and discuss applications in realistic scenarios of inflation. We discuss to what extent in this model the scale of the inflationary potential can be decoupled from the amplitude of the density fluctuations.
Gauge mediation of supersymmetry breakdown has many attractive features and can be realized in phenomenologically interesting string-motivated models. We point out that in models with the Polonyi-like field stabilized at a low expectation value by qu
antum corrections, gravity seems to limit from above the admixture of gravity mediation to the dominant gauge mediation channel. However, we also point out that in a class of such models the low energy metastable supersymmetry breaking vaccum appears to be cosmologically disfavoured. These features should hold also in the case of typical stabilized models with anomalous U(1) groups.
Moduli with flat or run-away classical potentials are generic in theories based on supersymmetry and extra dimensions. They mix between themselves and with matter fields in kinetic terms and in the nonperturbative superpotentials. As the result, inte
resting structure appears in the scalar potential which helps to stabilise and trap moduli and leads to multi-field inflation. The new and attractive feature of multi-inflationary setup are isocurvature perturbations which can modify in an interesting way the final spectrum of primordial fluctuations resulting from inflation.
