Local string models of soft supersymmetry breaking

Abstract

We study soft supersymmetry breaking in local models of type II string theory compactifications with branes and fluxes. In such models, magnetic fluxes can be treated as auxiliary fields in N = 2 SUSY multiplets. These multiplets appear as "spurion superfields" in the low-energy effective action for the local model. We discuss the pattern of SUSY breaking from N = 2 to N=1 to N = 0 in these models, and then identify the fields leading to soft SUSY breaking terms in various examples. In the final section, we reconsider arguments for the Dijkgraaf-Vafa conjecture in gauge theories with softly broken supersymmetry. © SISSA/ISAS 2004.