Lectures on supersymmetry breaking - an introduction

Abstract: This course aims to give an introduction to supersymmetry breaking in N=1 supersymmetric (gauge) theories. Through a presentation of some selected topics, the students are brought from the most elementary models of supersymmetry breaking to some of the most recent progress in the field, including the possibility for supersymmetry to be broken into metastable vacua.

The course will consist in three (very) introductory lectures on the N=1 superspace formalism and on the dynamics of SQCD with gauge group SU(N) and N_f flavors. The tentative program for the five more advanced lectures is:
Lecture I: Vacua of supersymmetric quantum field theories, general features of supersymmetry breaking models (F-term and D-term breaking) and the Goldstino theorem.
Lecture II: General criteria for supersymmetry breaking: the role of (R and non-R) global symmetries; the Witten index.
Lecture III: F-term supersymmetry breaking (both into stable as well as into metastable vacua): O'R model and some of its (metastable) variants.
Lecture IV: Models of dynamical supersymmetry breaking.
Lecture V: Metastable vacua in (massive) SQCD: the ISS model.