On taming the warped radion with supersymmetry

In warped models that solve the hierarchy problem, there is generally no dynamical relation between the size of the fifth dimension and the scale of electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). The establishment of such a relation, without fine-tuning, requires that Casimir contributions to the radion potential not exceed the energy density associated with EWSB. Here, we examine the use of supersymmetry for controlling the Casimir energy density and making quantum contributions calculable. We compute the effects of supersymmetry breaking at the UV and IR boundaries of warped backgrounds, in the presence of brane localized kinetic terms. Various limits of supersymmetry breaking are examined. We find that when supersymmetry is broken on the UV brane, vacuum contributions to the radion potential can be controlled (as likely necessary for EWSB to govern the radion potential) via small soft masses as well as a “double volume suppression.” Our formalism can also provide a setup for radion stabilization by bulk fields, when supersymmetry is broken on both the UV and the IR branes.