Natural mechanism for supersymmetry breaking in N=1 theories

Determine a natural mechanism that spontaneously breaks supersymmetry in N=1 supersymmetric quantum field theories, given that in rigid N=1 supersymmetry the perturbative effective potential vanishes and therefore radiative corrections cannot induce supersymmetry breaking.

Background

The memoir recounts early efforts to obtain realistic supersymmetric models via spontaneous breaking. After attempts at classical breaking produced mass spectra incompatible with observations, attention turned to radiative corrections.

West explains that he realized the effective potential vanishes in the most general N=1 theory invariant under rigid supersymmetry, precluding perturbative radiative breaking. The text then explicitly states that the broader challenge of breaking supersymmetry naturally remains largely unsolved, highlighting an enduring open problem in constructing realistic supersymmetric models.

References

The problem of breaking supersymmetry in a natural way is still largely unsolved.

— Memories of Abdus Salam and the early days of supersymmetry  (2403.13453 - West, 2024) in Paragraph beginning “Eventually I realised that if supersymmetry was preserved at the classical level then the effective potential vanished...” following reference [14] (mid-article narrative on supersymmetry breaking and moduli)

Moreover, despite decades of study, the mechanism responsible for SUSY breaking remains one of the principal unresolved questions in supersymmetric model building.

— Two-loop renormalisation and Higgs phenomenology in the five-dimensional MSSM  (2608.23555 - Abdalgabar et al., 24 Aug 2026) in Section 1, Introduction