Speaker: Robert Wiley Deal, University of Oklahoma and University of Wisconsin-Madison
Abstract: We examine the cosmological moduli problem and its connection to electroweak naturalness. The cosmological moduli problem (CMP) comes in three parts: 1. Potential violation of Big-Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) constraints from late decaying moduli fields, 2. The moduli-induced gravitino problem wherein gravitinos are overproduced and their decay violates BBN or dark matter overproduction bounds, and 3. The moduli-induced lightest SUSY particle (LSP) overproduction problem. We calculate the various two-body decay widths of a light modulus field into MSSM particles and gravitinos within general supersymmetric models. We evaluate regions of gravitino mass vs modulus mass parameter space constrained by BBN, by overproduction of gravitinos, and by overproduction of neutralino dark matter, along with connections to naturalness. We introduce a new solution to the CMP, and list a variety of other solutions to the CMP.