An alternative form of supersymmetry with reduced cross-sections and modified experimental signatures

Abstract: There is a convincing case for some form of supersymmetry, but conventional supersymmetry has been plagued by many unsolved theoretical difficulties, and not a single superpartner has been identified up to surprisingly high experimental limits. These failures suggest that it is appropriate to rethink the meaning of supersymmetry at the most fundamental level. Here we consider a radically different form of supersymmetry, which initially combines standard Weyl fermion fields and primitive (unphysical) boson fields. A stable vacuum then requires that the initial boson fields be transformed into three kinds of scalar-boson fields: the usual complex fields $\phi$, auxiliary fields $F$, and real fields $\varphi$ of a new kind. The requirement of a stable vacuum thus imposes Lorentz invariance, and also immediately breaks the initial susy -- whereas the breaking of conventional supersymmetry has long been a formidable difficulty. Even more importantly, for future experimental success, the present formulation may explain why no superpartners have yet been identified: Embedded in an $SO(10)$ grand-unified description, most of the conventional processes for production, decay, and detection of sfermions are excluded, and the same is true for many processes involving gauginos and higgsinos. This implies that superpartners with masses $\sim 1$ TeV may exist, but with reduced cross-sections and modified experimental signatures. For example, a top squark (as redefined here) will not decay at all, but can radiate pairs of gauge bosons and will also leave straight tracks through second-order (electromagnetic, weak, strong, and Higgs) interactions with detectors. The predictions of the present theory include (1) the dark matter candidate of our previous papers, (2) many new fermions with masses not far above 1 TeV, and (3) the full range of superpartners with a modified phenomenology.