Axion Models with High-Scale Supersymmetry Breaking

Abstract

Inspired by the possibility of high-scale supersymmetry breaking in the string landscape where the cosmological constant problem and the gauge hierarchy problem can be solved while the strong CP problem is still a challenge for naturalness, we propose a supersymmetric KSVZ axion model with an approximate universal intermediate-scale ($\sim 10^{11}$ GeV) supersymmetry breaking. To protect the global Peccei--Quinn (PQ) symmetry against quantum gravitational violation, we consider the gauged discrete $Z_N$ PQ symmetry. In our model the axion can be a cold dark matter candidate, and the intermediate supersymmetry breaking scale is directly related to the PQ symmetry breaking scale. Gauge coupling unification can be achieved at about $2.7\times 10^{16}$ GeV. The Higgs mass range is 130 GeV to 160 GeV. We briefly discuss other axion models with high-scale supersymmetry breaking where the stabilization of the axion solution is similar.