Two-loop effective potential for the minimal supersymmetric standard model

Abstract

I compute the complete two-loop effective potential for the minimal supersymmetric standard model in the Landau gauge. This enables an accurate determination of the minimization conditions for the vacuum expectation values of the Higgs fields. Checks on the result follow from supersymmetric limits and from renormalization-scale invariance. The renormalization group equations for the field-independent vacuum energy and the vacuum expectation values are also presented. I provide numerical examples showing the improved accuracy and scale dependence obtained with the full two-loop effective potential.