Spontaneous supersymmetry breaking from extra dimensions

We propose a new spontaneous supersymmetry breaking mechanism, in which extra compact dimensions play an important role. To illustrate our mechanism, we study a simple model consisting of two chiral superfields, where one spatial dimension is compactified on a circle S'. It is shown that supersymmetry is spontaneously broken irrespective of the radius of the circle, and also that the translational invariance for the S-1-direction and a global symmetry are spontaneously broken when the radius becomes larger than a critical radius. These results are expected to be general features of our mechanism. We further discuss that our mechanism may be observed as the O'Raifeartaigh type of supersymmetry breaking at low energies. (C) 1999 Published by Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.