From inflation to new weak-scale physics in high-scale supersymmetry

Dr. Kunio Kaneta (Hosted by Dev), University of Minnesota

The success of the cosmic inflation is telling us that supersymmetry is the most compelling framework to describe physics below the Planck scale. Given the fact that we have not yet observed any new physics beyond the standard model, it is worth asking how heavy the  supersymmetry particles can be. It turns out that if supsersymmetry is broken above the inflation scale, an EeV scale gravitino can be a good candidate for dark matter. In this talk, I will discuss the gravitino production after the inflation, as well as its decay signatures. In conjunction with dark matter and inflation, a possible leptogenesis scenario will be addressed. I will also argue that in the context of high-scale supersymmetry, gauge coupling unification and the stability of the Higgs vacuum are maintained in an SO(10) grand unified theory, which calls for the presence of new TeV-scale physics.