text:
\section{Introduction}

The existence of de Sitter vacua has been often challenged in string theory \cite{Danielsson:2018ztv,Obied:2018sgi,Andriot:2018wzk}
and one needs to contemplate on viable alternatives.
In particular one scenario that has regained attention is the
so-called quintessence phase \cite{Wetterich:1987fm,Ratra:1987rm,Caldwell:1997ii}.
Quintessence is essentially nothing but a low-scale inflationary phase,
and as such,
quintessence is still plagued with some of the problems of inflation in string theory.

However, apart from the challenges that one faces when embedding the quintessence sector in string theory
and achieving moduli stabilization,
there is an extra issue that arises which relates to the mediation of the supersymmetry breaking
to the observable sector.
This issue was highlighted recently in \cite{Hebecker:2019csg}, where it was dubbed ``F-term problem'',
and can be summarized as follows:
Even though the net supersymmetry breaking scale can be (at best) of order TeV (in order to control loop corrections),
the supersymmetry mediation scale is large and gives very light superpartner masses for the standard model
sector.\footnote{A similar issue (but not really of the same nature as the F-term problem)
also arises in simple supergravity quintessence models (see e.g. \cite{Copeland:2000vh}).}
In other words,
even though the net supersymmetry breaking can be TeV,
one finds the gaugini masses to be of order $10^{-15}$ TeV.
One could introduce an extra hidden sector (say $X$) that also breaks supersymmetry,
but this will not solve the problem.
Indeed,
let us assume the quintessence dynamics requires a scalar potential $V_{quint}$ and that
the breaking from $X$ is mediated as usual by a new term in the K\"ahler potential of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\delta K \sim \frac{\alpha_i}{\Lambda^2}  |X|^2 |\Phi^i|^2 \ \to \ \frac{\alpha_i |F^X|^2}{\Lambda^2}  |A^i|^2  \,,
\end{eqnarray}
where $\alpha_i$ are some parameters that are expected to be of ${\cal O}(1)$
and $\Lambda$ is some cut-off (or equivalently a mediation scale).
As a result,
to have a considerable contribution to the non-supersymmetric masses
one will need a large value for $\langle F^X \rangle \sim($TeV$)^2$.
The latter will then feed into the supergravity scalar potential
giving an extra contribution proportional to
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{F-prob}
\delta V_{SUGRA} \sim \text{SUSY breaking}  \sim |F^X|^2 \gg V_{quint} \,,
\end{eqnarray}
which in turn leads to an unrealistic late-time cosmological scenario,
or at least spoils the original quintessence phase that was controlled by $V_{quint}$.
One could cancel this new contribution to the scalar potential
by finding another new contribution to the gravitino mass
(recall that $V_{SUGRA} = -3 m_{3/2}^2$ + \dots),
but such resolution posses a challenge as discussed in \cite{Hebecker:2019csg}
because no new contributions to the gravitino mass seem possible from string theory.
Or if they exist, they are going to be sub-dominant.

It is important to appreciate that the only consistent way to lower the vacuum energy in N=1 supergravity is
either by lowering the net supersymmetry breaking or by increasing the gravitino mass.
Other effects will either fall under these two categories or will include ghosts.
This is what makes the F-term problem a very serious issue for quintessence models.
Note also that there is no straightforward way to escape from the F-term problem even if one uses
the huge freedom granted by non-linearly realized supersymmetry \cite{Rocek:1978nb,Casalbuoni:1988xh}.
Indeed, the supersymmetry breaking sector,
even if it is a pure goldstino,
is typically tied to a non-vanishing contribution to the vacuum energy of the form \eqref{F-prob},
which according to \cite{Hebecker:2019csg} has to be extremely small.
Then, technically,
it is possible to eliminate the superpartners with various $X$-related nilpotency conditions \cite{DallAgata:2016syy}.
However, because the supersymmetry breaking scale from $F^X$ is too low,
the goldstino self-interactions remain non-unitary
even at rather very low energies (energies comparable to $\sqrt{F^X}$) \cite{Casalbuoni:1988sx}.
This means such a theory will have a very low cut-off (below the TeV scale).
Alternatively,
one could consider that it is the net supersymmetry breaking (which is of order TeV) that enters the nilpotency conditions and not only $\sqrt{F^X}$.
It is not clear how realistic it is to obtain such a scenario from string theory.

In this work we want to take a closer look into the quintessence phase,
and its supergravity embedding,
and see if there is some additional contribution to the scalar masses.
We first recall that the mass splitting between the component fields of a supermultiplet
is typically controlled by the overall supersymmetry breaking,
therefore one should consider the contributions from all relevant sectors.
Because during quintessence
we are on a background where there exists a scalar with non-vanishing kinetic energy,
say $\dot \phi \ne 0$,
then we will have an extra contribution to the supesymmetry breaking.
The easiest way to convince oneself that this is the case is by noticing
that 4D N=1 supergravity is equipped with the appropriate goldstino-gravitino mixing term \cite{Wess:1992cp,FVP}
\begin{eqnarray}
\partial_m \phi \overline \chi^\phi \overline \sigma^m \sigma^n \overline \psi_m
\ \to \ \
\dot \phi  \overline \chi^\phi \overline \sigma^m \sigma^0 \overline \psi_m \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Such coupling with the gravitino is the signature of a supersymmetry breaking sector,
and means that $\dot \phi$ is generically bound to contribute to mass-splittings within a supermultiplet
or give mass to scalar moduli.
This also means that the goldstino is not only provided by the multiplet with the non-vanishing
auxiliary field VEV (e.g. $F^X$) but also gets a contribution from the fermion superpartner $\chi^\phi$ of the quintessence scalar.
Schematically we conclude that \cite{Giudice:1999am}
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{Total-SUSY}
\text{SUSY breaking} \sim \text{``}|F^X|^2\text{''} + \text{``} \dot \phi^2\text{''} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Even though we have established that $\dot \phi$ contributes to the supersymmetry breaking,
we are again faced with a new type of F-term problem because if $\dot \phi$ is too large,
then it will endanger the quintessence phase simply by breaking the slow-roll conditions.
This can be also understood by inserting \eqref{Total-SUSY} into \eqref{F-prob}.
In fact during a slow-roll phase
\begin{eqnarray}
\dot \phi^2 \sim \epsilon H^2\, ,
\end{eqnarray}
and therefore the true challenge in these models is to see how realistic a strong mediation term will be.
In other words,
we want to see if we can have parametrically large masses (compared to $\epsilon H^2$),
that are generated now by $\dot \phi \ne 0$ instead of $F^X \ne 0$.
As we will see the applicability of such mechanism in quintessence is always model dependent,
and it may happen that in models derived from string theory such effect cannot truly help ameliorate the F-term problem.

The rest of the article is organized as follows.
In the next section we work with a non-supersymmetric gravitational theory and in the third section we turn to supergravity.
In both cases we show that the contribution to the mass of the scalars is model dependent,
and we also discuss few examples where it works and examples where it fails.
We also see why such mechanism (which is intrinsic in supergravity embeddings)
may instead pose a catastrophic threat to otherwise healthy quintessence models, depending on the kinetic mixings.
This effect is already studied within the context of inflationary cosmology, because it can ruin inflation,
and therefore is dubbed ``geometrical destabilization'' \cite{Renaux-Petel:2015mga,Cicoli:2018ccr,Grocholski:2019mot,Cicoli:2019ulk}.
In the fourth section we turn to the gaugini masses which are of course also influenced by the F-term problem.
We find that the term that mediates the breaking from the quintessence sector to the gaugini is not
present in standard supergravity.
Then we proceed to construct a new term that does exactly that and we study its properties.
It seems that such term finds its natural place within the new-minimal formulation of supergravity,
and in models where the quintessence phase is driven by a real linear multiplet instead of a chiral.
In the fifth section we give a few concluding remarks and an outlook for future work.

\section{Effective masses from kinetic mixings}

Before turning to supergravity it is very instructive to work with a non-supersymmetric model.
To this end let us consider quintessence driven for simplicity by a
real scalar $\tau$ slow-rolling down a run-away potential,
that is we simply have
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{Quint-sc}
e^{-1} {\cal L}_{quint} = -\frac12 R
- \frac12 k(\tau) \partial \tau \partial \tau
- V \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Here for later convenience we have also included a kinetic function $k(\tau)$.
On an FLRW background we have
\begin{eqnarray}
ds^2 = - dt^2 + a(t)^2 d\vec{x}^2 \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
where $a$ is the scale factor and the Hubble scale is $H = \dot a / a$.
The scalar equation of motion and the Friedmann equation then read
\begin{eqnarray}
k(\tau) \ddot \tau + 3 H k(\tau) \dot \tau + \frac12 k'(\tau) \dot \tau^2 + V'(\tau) = 0 \ , \quad
\frac12 k(\tau) \dot \tau^2 + V = 3 H^2 \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
where the dot refers to time derivative.
One then needs to achieve slow-roll, just as in standard inflation,
which requires
\begin{eqnarray}
\epsilon = \frac12 \frac{V'^2}{k V^2} \ll 1 \ , \quad
\eta = \frac{V''}{k V} - \frac12 \frac{k' V'}{k^2 V^2}  \ll 1 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Then once the slow-roll conditions are met we have
\begin{eqnarray}
\dot \tau \simeq - \frac{V'}{3 H k} \,.
\end{eqnarray}

Let us assume there is now another scalar in the theory (say $\rho$)
with canonical kinetic term but
with a kinetic coupling to the quintessence sector of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
k(\tau) \ \text{in \eqref{Quint-sc}} \ \to \ \ \tilde k(\tau) = k(\tau) - \gamma  \rho^2 \, .
\end{eqnarray}
Note that the scalar $\rho$ can also enter the scalar
potential $V$ and could also have a mass term due to other effects.
However such scalar gets an extra contribution to its effective mass
due to the kinetic coupling
\begin{eqnarray}
+ \frac12 e \gamma \, \partial \tau \partial \tau  \rho^2 \ \to \ \ -  \frac12 e \gamma \, \dot \tau^2  \rho^2  \, .
\end{eqnarray}
Therefore this new contribution to the mass has the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\delta m^2_\rho = \gamma \dot \tau^2 \simeq \gamma \frac{V'^2}{3 V k^2} \simeq \frac{2 \gamma}{3k} \epsilon V \,.
\end{eqnarray}
As long as slow-roll holds clearly $\epsilon V$ is a small number,
however the $2 \gamma / 3k$ term can help give a significant positive contribution to the mass,
or reduce it depending on the sign of $\gamma$.
In addition,
we can assume that during the quintessence phase $\rho |_{quint} = 0 = \dot \rho |_{quint} $
such that $\tilde k |_{quint} = k |_{quint}$
and so the quintessence phase is left intact.
Note that quintessence has a crucial difference compared with inflation:
During quintessence it is sufficient to have
\begin{eqnarray}
\epsilon \lesssim 1 \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
and so if we take roughly
\begin{eqnarray}
V \sim 10^{-120} \ , \quad
\frac{k}{\gamma} \sim 10^{-90} \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
we get a mass contribution of order (we restore momentarily $M_P$)
\begin{eqnarray}
\delta m_\rho \sim 10^{-15} M_P  \,.
\end{eqnarray}
At first sight such small values for $k/\gamma$ seem to require significant tuning
and may seem unrealistic.
Therefore as we said earlier the challenge is to see if such values could be achieved in a realistic model.

A model independent discussion could only get us this far,
so let us now work with a simple example.
We set
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{gen-ex}
k(\tau) = \frac{1}{\tau^2} \ , \quad V(\tau) = V_0 \tau^{-1/2} \,,
\end{eqnarray}
and we remind the reader that we are always working with Planck units,
i.e. $M_P=1$,
unless otherwise noted.
Then we can recast the scalar $\tau$ into a form with canonical kinetic terms,
which means we set
\begin{eqnarray}
\phi = ln \tau \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
which brings the scalar potential for the canonical field $\phi$ to the form
\begin{eqnarray}
V = V_0 \, e^{- \phi / 2} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
This scalar potential is typical for quintessence and one can find that the time dependence is
\begin{eqnarray}
\phi \simeq 4 \, ln \left( \frac{\sqrt{V_0}}{8 \sqrt 3} t \right) \ , \quad \dot \phi \simeq \frac{H}{2} \simeq \frac{4}{t} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Now we can directly evaluate the contribution to the effective mass
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{EX-DM}
\delta m^2_\rho = \gamma \dot \tau^2 \simeq \gamma e^{2 \phi} \dot \phi^2 \simeq \frac{\gamma V_0^4}{(18)^2} H^{-6} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Taking into account that $V_0^2 H^{-3}$ can take a variety of values
we see that the mass contribution due to the kinetic mixing can be arbitrarily large
and can strongly stabilize the scalar as long as $\gamma$ is positive.
In addition the quintessence phase is not broken because the net kinetic energy is still sub-dominant,
i.e. we have
\begin{eqnarray}
 \frac12 k(\tau) \dot \tau^2 \simeq \epsilon H^2 \sim  \frac{H^2}{8} \ll 3 H^2 \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
which means our slow-roll approximations are of course valid.

It is interesting to get some feedback from the swampland conjectures to see if such hierarchy
has at least a remote chance of being generated in string theory.
The distance conjecture for an inflating theory takes roughly the form \cite{Ooguri:2006in,Scalisi:2018eaz}
\begin{eqnarray}
\Delta \phi \lesssim \frac{1}{\lambda} log \, \frac{1}{\Lambda_{UV}} \,,
\end{eqnarray}
where $\Lambda_{UV}$ is some high energy cut-off scale associated to quantum gravity
and $\lambda$ is generically assumed to be of order one.
This restricts the range of $\phi$ but still gives a window
that allows the $V_0^2 H^{-3}$ fraction in \eqref{EX-DM} to take a variety of different values.
Let us assume
\begin{eqnarray}
\Lambda_{UV} \sim \text{TeV} \sim 10^{-15} \ , \quad  \lambda \sim \frac{1}{10} \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
which give
\begin{eqnarray}
\Delta \phi  \lesssim 150 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Note here that we took the TeV scale (the scale of the superpartners) as the UV cut-off and we set for $\lambda$
to be one order of magnitude smaller than the generic expectation.
Then we can have
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{num-1}
\phi \sim 90 \ , \quad V_0 \sim 10^{-100} \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
which give
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{num-2}
H \sim 10^{-60} \ , \quad \delta m_\rho \sim \sqrt{\gamma} \times 10^{-15} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
We see that if $\gamma$ is of order one then such a scenario is marginally within the limits set by the swampland.
Clearly,
by changing the behavior of $\gamma$ we can relax the restrictions from the distance conjecture even more.

In the example we discussed it seems possible that the mass due to kinetic mixing will have a significant positive contribution.
This may be true for the specific model we studied but it is strongly a model-dependent result.
Indeed,
if for example $\gamma$ is not a constant,
and if it is instead given by $\gamma \sim k(\tau)$ then the contribution to the mass of $\rho$ would be
proportional to $H^2$ and so it would be insignificant.
Clearly different choices of $\gamma$ lead to masses of different magnitude.
Another situation is to have $\gamma<0$ in which case the mass
from the kinetic mixing would tend to make the scalar a tachyon.
We also note that this effect is typically ignored during inflation because in the deep inflating regime we have $\epsilon \ll 1$
and so it is very hard to generate significant contributions to the masses of the other scalars (due to this mechanism).
For situations where this effect can endanger inflation due to the existence of light moduli
see e.g. \cite{Renaux-Petel:2015mga,Cicoli:2018ccr,Grocholski:2019mot,Cicoli:2019ulk}.

\section{Examples in N=1 supergravity}

The bosonic sector of the Lagrangian for chiral scalar superfields coupled to N=1 supergravity has the form
\begin{eqnarray}
e^{-1} {\cal L} = -\frac12 R - K_{i \overline j} \partial A^i \partial \overline A^j - V_{SUGRA} \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
where $V_{SUGRA}$ is the standard scalar potential of supergravity, see e.g. \cite{Wess:1992cp,FVP},
and $K$ is the K\"ahler potential.
The $A^i$ are the complex scalars that belong to the chiral superfields $\Phi^i$.
Models and discussions for quintessence in supergravity and in string theory can be found for example in  \cite{Binetruy:1998rz,Brax:1999gp,Copeland:2000vh,Hellerman:2001yi,Cicoli:2012tz,Akrami:2017cir,Chiang:2018jdg,Emelin:2018igk,Farakos:2019ajx,Ferrara:2019tmu,Farakos:2020jbx,Bento:2020fxj},
a general review focused on string theory models can be found in \cite{Cicoli:2018kdo} (and in \cite{Hebecker:2019csg}),
and some alternative proposals in string theory can be found in \cite{Bento:2020fxj,Olguin-Tejo:2018pfq,DallAgata:2019yrr}.
Therefore we will not commit ourselves here to finding an appropriate superpotential $P(\Phi^i)$ that gives to $V_{SUGRA}$
the required quintessence form.
Rather, we will investigate what types of K\"ahler potentials can give rise to a significant mass to the scalars due to the kinetic mixing,
assuming we are in a quintessence phase.
Since the impact of the kinetic mixing on the mass is highly model dependent,
we will illustrate the various possibilities with few examples.

\subsection*{K\"ahler moduli inspired example}

Let us first give an example where the effect of the quintessence phase
has a different behavior than the one we saw in the previous section.
We focus on only two complex scalars $A$ and $T$,
the latter being the quintessence field.
We set
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{-2K}
K = - 2 \, ln (T + \overline T - A \overline A / 2) \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
where $T$ can be some K\"ahler modulus and $A$ a modulus related for example to the position of
a D3-brane (see e.g. \cite{Conlon:2005ki,Hebecker:2019csg}).
Within a complete string theory setup the $K = -2 \dots$ would rather be $K=-3 \dots$
(for example if we considered K\"ahler moduli quintessence \cite{Cicoli:2012tz}),
but since it does not play a significant role we keep the $-2$ so that we match the quintessence
dynamics with the previous discussions.
The kinetic terms of $T$ are controlled by
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{KTT-ss1}
K_{T \overline T}
= \frac{2}{(T + \overline T)^2} \left(1 + \frac{A \overline A}{2 (T + \overline T)} + \dots \right)  \,.
\end{eqnarray}
To study the dynamics let us split the complex scalar field $T$ as
\begin{eqnarray}
T = \tau + i \zeta \,,
\end{eqnarray}
with the fields during the quintessence phase given by
\begin{eqnarray}
\zeta|_{quint} = 0 \ , \quad \tau|_{quint}  = \text{slow-rolling scalar},
\end{eqnarray}
and
\begin{eqnarray}
A|_{quint} = 0 = \dot A|_{quint} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Note that the model we have here gives exactly the same form
for the kinetic function as we had in the previous section $k(\tau) = (1 / 2) \tau^{-2}$.
It is then convenient to assume that the dynamics of $\tau$ are similar to the ones we found for the working example
in the previous section (i.e. a scalar potential similar to \eqref{gen-ex}) such that
\begin{eqnarray}
\tau \sim V_0^2 H^{-4} \ , \quad \dot \tau \sim V_0^2 H^{-3} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
We can now evaluate the contribution to the effective mass of $A$
due to the kinetic term of $T$ on the quintessence background.
From \eqref{KTT-ss1} we have
\begin{eqnarray}
{\cal L}_{kin \, T} \sim  \frac{|\dot T|^2 |A|^2}{(T + \overline T)^3}  \sim  \frac{\dot \tau^2}{\tau^3} |A|^2 \sim  V_0^{-2} H^6 |A|^2 \, .
\end{eqnarray}
To correctly identify the contribution to the mass of $A$ we have
to take into account also the normalization of its kinetic terms
\begin{eqnarray}
{\cal L}_{kin \, A} \sim - \frac{1}{\tau} |\partial A|^2 \sim   - V_0^{-2} H^{4} |\partial A|^2\,.
\end{eqnarray}
Therefore after canonical normalization we find a very small negative contribution to the effective mass
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{m-can}
\delta m^2_{A} \sim - \frac{\dot \tau^2}{\tau^2} \sim - \epsilon \, H^2 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
If the scalar $A$ is very light this will lead to a destabilization \cite{Renaux-Petel:2015mga,Cicoli:2018ccr,Grocholski:2019mot,Cicoli:2019ulk},
but if there is already another positive supersymmetric mass (or not supersymmetric) then there is no issue.
Note also that the mass is exactly of the same order as the supersymmetry breaking sourced by the quintessence sector,
that is $\epsilon H^2$.

A different potential can change the impact of such effect and may lead to a significant contribution to the moduli masses.
Indeed,
let us assume that we have instead of the scalar potential in \eqref{gen-ex},
a scalar potential of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\hat V(\tau) = V_0 \tau^{1/2} \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
but we keep of course the same K\"ahler potential \eqref{-2K}.
Here the crucial difference is that $\tau$ goes to smaller and smaller values as the quintessence phase proceeds.
Then we can again recast the scalar $\tau$ into a form with canonical kinetic terms by setting
\begin{eqnarray}
\phi = - ln \tau \,.
\end{eqnarray}
This brings the scalar potential for the canonical field $\phi$ to the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\hat V = V_0 e^{- \phi / 2} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Then we have $\tau \sim V_0^{-2} H^4$ and thus
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{kin-H-2}
{\cal L}_{kin \, T} \sim \frac{\dot \tau^2}{\tau^3} |A|^2 \sim V_0^{2} H^{-2} |A|^2 \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
which may give a considerable negative contribution to the moduli masses and completely ruin quintessence,
as happens with the geometrical destabilization \cite{Renaux-Petel:2015mga,Cicoli:2018ccr,Grocholski:2019mot,Cicoli:2019ulk}.
Note however that once canonical normalization is taken into account we will have a mass of the form \eqref{m-can}
which seems less dangerous.
Still, the $H^{-2}$ that comes from the kinetic mixing \eqref{kin-H-2} is a huge negative contribution which has to be matched
by another contribution to the second derivative of the supergravity scalar potential in order to stabilize the scalars.

Note that a crude analysis of the fibre quintessence scenario \cite{Cicoli:2012tz} shows that if we included the D3-brane moduli
as in \eqref{-2K} and have $T$ as the quintessence scalar then we would get a mass contribution
of the form $\delta m^2 \sim - \epsilon H^2$.
This is of course not an immediate threat as long as there is a sector that
contributes to the moduli masses at least as $H^2$.
Such contribution is within reach even if the F-term problem persists.

Until now we have seen that the contribution to the moduli masses due to the quintessence sector is
of order $\epsilon H^2$, and so rather insignificant.
Needless to say that one can add modifications to the K\"ahler potential \eqref{-2K} such that
the contribution from quintessence changes and gives instead a huge impact to the masses.
For example a succinct
list of the contributions that can enter \eqref{-2K} can be found in \cite{Hebecker:2019csg}.
However,
we checked few simple deformations and found that
the parameters entering such modifications would require a significant amount of tuning to increase considerably the
contribution to the effective mass.
Therefore one can wonder if the required modifications,
and in particular the amount of tuning required, would really exist in string theory.
We will come back later to this point and give a working example.

\subsection*{General expectations}

As we have seen the quintessence sector seems to give very small contributions to the effective masses of the moduli.
In search of possible modifications,
let us now see what are the general expectations we can have in a supergravity theory.
Let us first assume we have a K\"ahler potential $K(T+\delta T,
\overline T + \delta \overline T,
A + \delta A,
\overline A + \delta \overline A)$
with a form such that it can be expanded as follows
\begin{eqnarray}
K = \alpha |\delta T|^2 + \beta |\delta A|^2 - \gamma |\delta A|^2 |\delta T|^2 + \dots
\end{eqnarray}
where the dots are simply higher order terms.
The coefficients $\alpha$, $\beta$ and $\gamma$ are of course nothing but the derivatives of the K\"ahler potential
with respect to the chiral superfields, e.g. $\alpha = K_{T \overline T}$, $\beta = K_{A \overline A}$,
and
\begin{eqnarray}
\gamma = - K_{T \overline T A \overline A} \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
and they are  in principle field-dependent.
Then the consistency of the kinetic terms will require
\begin{eqnarray}
\alpha(T, \overline T) > 0 \ , \quad \beta(T, \overline T) - \gamma(T, \overline T) |\delta T|^2 > 0 \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
and we also choose to have $\gamma (T, \overline T)>0$.
As before, for quintessence we have
\begin{eqnarray}
\delta T|_{quint} = \tau \,,
\end{eqnarray}
which is a real scalar.
Now the kinetic mixing will induce a mass term to the scalar $A$ and once we also take into account canonical normalization we have
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{gen-mass-A}
\delta m^2_{A} = \frac{\gamma \, \dot \tau^2}{\beta - \gamma \tau^2} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
For this effect to dominate the mass of the complex scalar $A$ one would essentially ask that $\gamma$ takes parametrically large values.
However,
then,
the denominator due to the canonical normalization would become negative
signaling that the $A$ scalar would be a ghost.
In other words, to guarantee that the denominator is positive one has to ask that $\beta > \gamma \tau^2$
which can be safely satisfied only when $\gamma$ is not parametrically large.

One can be tempted to take $\beta \gtrsim \gamma \tau^2$ in \eqref{gen-mass-A}
such that the denominator remains positive but approaches zero,
in which case the mass becomes arbitrarily large.
However such large mass should not be attributed to the quintessence supersymmetry breaking per se,
rather it is due to the singular kinetic term of $A$.
Indeed,
one important point we would like to discuss is related to the fermionic and the scalar moduli kinetic terms.
In principle due to the kinetic mixings we will have terms of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
- K_{i\overline j}(\tau) \, \partial A^i \partial \overline A^j
- i K_{i\overline j}(\tau) \, \overline \chi^{j} \overline \sigma^m D_m(\omega) \chi^i \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
which after the field redefinitions may in any case alter the masses.
However such terms do not require a specialized discussion here for the following reasons.
Firstly,
such terms lead to a rescaling of the fermions and the scalars of the same supermultiplet
in exactly the same way.
So as far as the F-term problem is concerned such terms are not so important
because they do not generate a mass splitting per se.
Secondly,
these terms will influence also the moduli masses
that are generated from the standard scalar potential.
Therefore,
if these terms do have a significant impact on the masses,
then they will also affect the mass splitting coming from the F-term breaking.
So, again, it is not an effect that should be attributed to the quintessence supersymmetry breaking per se.
Finally,
if we want to address the scalar moduli stabilization,
then such terms should be in any case taken into account when we evaluate the moduli masses,
and so our discussion does not have something extra to add to that.
However, we always do have to check in the end the true effective mass of a scalar,
as we have been doing.

Our general discussion until now seems to imply that we could never make the kinetic mixing give a huge
positive contribution to the masses in a supergravity setup, and therefore much less in string theory.
However,
there is a small detail in the K\"ahler potential that changes completely the behavior of such term.
In particular we simply have to ask that
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{gAA}
K_{A \overline A} = \beta( A , \overline A)
+ \frac{1}{2} (T-\overline T)^2 \, \gamma (T, \overline T, A , \overline A) \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Then the canonical mass of the scalar $A$ during a quintessence phase
(that is  Re$\,\delta T = \tau$ and Im$\,\delta T = 0$),
will receive instead a contribution of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\delta m^2_{A} = \frac{\gamma(\tau) \, \dot \tau^2}{\beta(\tau)} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
As a result we see that by making $\gamma$ arbitrarily large,
which we are now at least technically allowed to do,
we can generate a parametrically large effective mass for the scalar $A$.

The form of the K\"ahler metric \eqref{gAA} implies that in that sector the real part of $T$
has at least some sort of shift symmetry.
In fact the requirements for shift symmetry may become even stronger when one tries to build realistic
scalar potentials, i.e. once we introduce a superpotential and check slow-roll,
stability, etc.
Note also that the form of \eqref{gAA} guarantees that the quintessence scalar will interact with $A$
only when the derivatives are acting on it.
These properties of the quintessence scalar already remind the properties of the axions.
In fact it is exactly the derivative couplings of the quintessence sector
with the other fields that are needed for this mechanism to work.
We leave a detailed study of the impact of this mechanism on realistic stringy quintessence models
that are based on axions for a future work.
Instead now we turn to a working example following the strategy we just outlined.

\subsection*{An ad hoc working example}

Let us now support our previous discussion with a specific example,
which is inevitably at this point rather ad hoc.
We set
\begin{eqnarray}
K = - 2 \, ln (T + \overline T) + A \overline A
+ \frac{1}{M^2} (T - \overline T)^2 A \overline A \, .
\end{eqnarray}
Then we have the kinetic terms
\begin{eqnarray}
e^{-1} {\cal L}_{kin} =
- \frac{2}{( T + \overline T )^2} \partial T \partial \overline T
+ \frac{2}{M^2} \partial T \partial \overline T |A|^2
 - \partial A \partial \overline A
- \frac{(T - \overline T)^2}{M^2} \partial A \partial \overline A + \dots \,,
\end{eqnarray}
where the dots stand for terms that are not relevant to us now.
As before on an FLRW background we have
\begin{eqnarray}
+ \frac{2}{M^2} \partial T \partial \overline T |A|^2
\ \to \ \
-2 \frac{|\dot T|^2}{M^2}  |A|^2  \,,
\end{eqnarray}
which gives rise to a contribution to the effective mass
\begin{eqnarray}
\delta m^2_A = 2 \frac{|\dot T|^2}{M^2} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
The model we have here gives for the kinetic function the form $k(\tau) = (1 / 2) \tau^{-2}$ and so
if we worked with a scalar potential similar to \eqref{gen-ex} we would get
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{A-mass-big}
\delta m^2_A \sim  \frac{\dot \tau^2}{M^2} \sim \frac{1}{M^2} V_0^4 H^{-6} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
We see that in this case we do get a significant contribution to the effective mass of the scalar $A$,
as we anticipated.
We stress that the mass \eqref{A-mass-big} is truly a product of the supersymmetry breaking
that is sourced from the kinetic energy of the quintessence scalar  $T$.
One can explicitly check this on the full supergravity action
by verifying that the fermion superpartners of $A$ do not get a similar mass term as \eqref{A-mass-big}.
Note that the kinetic terms of $A$ get an extra contribution due to the term
$(T - \overline T)^2 \partial A \partial \overline A \sim \zeta^2 \partial A \partial \overline A$.
However, because in our example here $\zeta=0$ during the quintessence phase, such term vanishes.

\section{Gaugino masses?}

Let us now turn to the gaugino F-term problem.
Until now we have discussed the impact of the F-term problem on the masses of scalar moduli
assuming that a similar discussion (at least qualitatively) will hold for sfermions
(scalars that are superpartners of the standard model fermions).
However,
one can wonder what happens to the gaugini, which are also influenced by the F-term problem.
Indeed, one needs a term of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{X-W2}
\frac{1}{\Lambda} \int d^2 \theta X W^2 \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
for some cut-off $\Lambda$ (or equivalently, a mediation scale),
in order to generate standard Majorana masses of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\frac{F^X}{\Lambda} \lambda^2 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
As we already discussed,
in the stringy models either $\Lambda$ is too large or $F^X$ is forced to be small
and as a result $F^X / \Lambda$ remains very low \cite{Hebecker:2019csg}.
Moreover,
we have seen that the quintessence supersymmetry breaking
may instead give a significant contribution to the scalar masses and we would like to see if it is possible to have a similar effect for the gaugini.
However the standard 2-derivative supergravity \cite{Wess:1992cp,FVP} is not equipped with a term
that gives Majorana masses due to the quintessence phase.
In this section we address exactly this issue.
First we see that in rigid supersymmetry one can construct 2-derivative terms
that give rise to gaugini Majorana masses.
However, these terms cannot be embedded directly in the old-minimal formulation.
Therefore we turn to an effective field theory approach for their supergravity embedding,
but we still ask that they give the 2-derivative terms in the rigid limit.
In the new-minimal formulation instead such terms do exist and describe 2-derivative interactions.

Note that the supergravity theory does instead contain terms that generate fermionic bilinears of the form
$e^{-1}{\cal L}_{SUGRA} \sim \frac{1}{M_P^2} \, i (K_T  - K_{\overline T} ) \, \dot \tau \, \overline \lambda \overline \sigma^0 \lambda$.
However such terms do not have the standard Majorana form as they mix the chiralities,
they decouple in the rigid limit,
and also equivalent terms further contribute both to the masses of the fermions that belong to the chiral multiplets but also to the gravitino.
Therefore we avoid invoking such terms,
and we also notice that they do vanish in our working examples.
We believe that they deserve a careful study that we leave for future work.
Here instead we will construct standard Majorana masses.

\subsection*{Tensor multiplets and rigid supersymmetry}

Let us start by introducing a supersymmetric interaction that contains up to two derivatives,
up to Gaussian auxiliary fields,
and gives rise to a gaugino mass on a time dependent background.
This term is exactly the missing piece that helps complete the mediation of the quintessence
supersymmetry breaking to matter.
It is more convenient to describe such superspace coupling in terms of a real linear multiplet,
and then dualize it to derive its form in terms of chiral superfields.

Let us present the superfields we need.\footnote{We use conventions from the book of Wess and Bagger \cite{Wess:1992cp}.}
A real linear multiplet is defined in superspace as
\begin{eqnarray}
L = L^* \ , \quad \overline D^2 L = 0 = D^2 L \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Its component fields are
\begin{eqnarray}
L | = a \ , \quad
D_\alpha L | = \sqrt 2 \chi^L_\alpha  \ , \quad
- \frac{1}{2} [D_\alpha , \overline D_{\dot \alpha}  ] L |  =  \sigma^m_{\alpha \dot \alpha} H_{m}  \,  ,
\end{eqnarray}
where $H_m$ satisfies the constraint $\partial^m H_m = 0$,
which means it is the field strength of a real two-form $H_m =  \epsilon_{mnkl} \partial^n B^{kl}$.
Since we want to couple to the gaugini,
let us also introduce the standard N=1 gauge multiplet.
Its component fields reside in
the gauge invariant chiral superfield
\begin{eqnarray}
W_\alpha = - \frac14 \overline D^2 D_\alpha V \,,
\end{eqnarray}
and have the form
\begin{equation}
W_\alpha | =  - i \lambda_\alpha \ , \quad
(D_\alpha W_\beta + D_\beta W_\alpha) | =  2i (\sigma^{nm} \epsilon)_{\alpha \beta} F_{mn} \ , \quad
D^\alpha W_\alpha | =  - 2 \text{D} \, ,
\end{equation}
where $F_{mn} = \partial_m v_n - \partial_n v_m$.
Here we will work with an abelian gauge vector but our coupling can be used also for non-abelian.
Finally the chiral superfield ($\overline D_{\dot \alpha} \Phi = 0$) will be useful later and has the expansion
\begin{eqnarray}
\Phi = A + \sqrt 2 \theta \chi^\Phi + \theta^2 F^\Phi \,.
\end{eqnarray}

The term that we study here and that mediates the supersymmetry breaking is
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{med-1}
{\cal L}_{med} = \frac{1}{M^3} \int d^4 \theta L^2 (W^2 + \overline W^2)
 = - \frac{1}{2M^3} \int d^2 \theta \, W^2 (\overline D L)^2  + c.c. \,,
\end{eqnarray}
where in the second equality the $\overline D_{\dot \alpha} L$ is allowed because it is a chiral superfield in global supersymmetry.
Our first job is to verify that this is a two-derivative term and that there are no higher order auxiliary field terms.
To this end we perform the superspace integral and act with the superspace derivatives to
bring the mediation term to the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{med-2}
{\cal L}_{med}  =  \frac{1}{8M^3} D^2W^2 | (\overline D L)^2 |
+ \frac{1}{4M^3} D^\alpha W^2 | D_\alpha (\overline D L)^2 |
+ \frac{1}{8M^3} W^2 | D^2 (\overline D L)^2 | + c.c.
\end{eqnarray}
From this expansion and from the component field definitions
we see that there is not a single term that will give rise to more than two derivatives
or to more than two auxiliary fields.
Moreover, we also see that there are always at least two fermions with no derivatives acting on them,
and there are never more than one derivatives acting on any field.
This is crucial because it tells us that once we add this term to 4D N=1 gauged chiral models
the standard 2-derivative kinetic terms and the scalar potential are left intact.
We leave the full component field expansion,
the investigation of the properties of all the terms in \eqref{med-2},
and possible generalizations for a future work.
Here instead we focus on the last term in \eqref{med-2} which gives in components
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{med-3}
{\cal L}_{med}  = - \frac{1}{4M^3} \lambda^2 \left( \partial_a a + i H_a \right)^2 + \dots
\end{eqnarray}
where the dots contain the complex conjugate and other fermionic terms.
From \eqref{med-3} we see that once the real scalar $a$ or the gauge two-form
have a time-dependent profile the gaugini will get an effective Majorana mass term.

One can wonder how arbitrary is the coupling we have introduced for the mediation term of the gaugini.
As we will show now it is rather unique.
As we have discussed until now we are considering backgrounds where either the real scalar $a$ or the
gauge two-form get a time dependent profile.
As a result
\begin{eqnarray}
\langle \left( \partial_a a + i H_a \right)^2 \rangle \ne 0 \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
where with the VEV symbol we refer to the dynamical background.
We then recall that
\begin{eqnarray}
\langle D^2 \left(  \overline D L \overline D L \right) \rangle = 2 \langle \left( \partial_a a + i H_a \right)^2 \rangle \ne 0 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
As a result $\overline D L \overline D L$ is a chiral superfield with a non-vanishing VEV for its $\theta^2$ component.
These properties suggest that we make the identification
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{XDLDL}
X = \overline D_{\dot \alpha} L \, \overline D^{\dot \alpha} L \, .
\end{eqnarray}
This composite superfield satisfies
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{NLX}
\overline D_{\dot \alpha} X = 0 \ , \quad X^2 =0 \ , \quad \langle F^X \rangle \ne 0 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Therefore we have successfully identified a nilpotent goldstino chiral superfield.
With this identification the term \eqref{med-1} takes the standard form \eqref{X-W2} that corresponds to the
mediation of the supersymmetry breaking to the gaugini.
There is of course further arbitrariness in the exact definition of $X$ in terms of $\overline D L$,
but now it is clear that it will be related to the arbitrariness in describing the goldstino itself in superspace.
In the end, it is known that all the formulations are related to each other \cite{Cribiori:2016hdz}.
Note that the identification \eqref{XDLDL} was also used in \cite{Farakos:2013zsa} for a slightly different setup,
whereas in \cite{Bagger:1997pi} a similar identification is related to the partial breaking of supersymmetry.
In \cite{Kuzenko:2017oni} a similar identification is also
possible as the supersymmetry breaking is sourced by a modified real linear multiplet.

\subsection*{Dualizing to chirals}

As we have seen the new coupling has a very simple form in terms of tensor multiplets,
but to utilize it in a 4D N=1 supergravity we prefer to recast it in terms of a chiral superfield.
We follow this path for two reasons:
First,
if we couple the term \eqref{med-1} to old-minimal N=1 supergravity a first inspection shows that we are bound to
find non-Gaussian auxiliary fields and higher derivatives (these two typically go together).
This problem persists also when we turn to the chiral multiplet description of course,
as we will see later, so we will in any case treat the new term only as a perturbation in supergravity,
i.e. we will evaluate it on the existing background.
Second, since we have been working until now with chiral multiplets it is more convenient to continue in the same framework.
However,
we do present the embedding of the term \eqref{med-1} in the new-minimal formulation in a later subsection where we argue that it
does not contain higher derivatives and the auxiliary fields remain at most Gaussian.

 Now we recast the mediation superspace coupling in terms of chiral superfields.
To do this we perform the standard chiral-linear duality.
Notably,
the fact that we can perform this duality is another indication that there is nothing peculiar with the term \eqref{med-1}.
We consider the Lagrangian
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{d-1}
{\cal L}_D =   - \frac12 \int d^4 \theta L^2
+ \int d^4 \theta L (\Phi + \overline \Phi)
 + \frac{1}{M^3} \int d^4 \theta L^2 (W^2 + \overline W^2) \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
where in order to perform the duality we have to pick a kinetic term for $L$.
Note that due to the term $ \int d^4 \theta L (\Phi + \overline \Phi)$ now $L$ is unconstrained.
If we integrate out $\Phi$ then $L$ becomes a standard real linear.
Now we vary the real superfield $L$ instead,
to get
\begin{eqnarray}
L = (\Phi + \overline \Phi)
+ \frac{2}{M^3} L (W^2 + \overline W^2) \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
which we solve iteratively as
\begin{eqnarray}
L = (\Phi + \overline \Phi) \left[ 1 \!+\! \frac{2}{M^3} (W^2 \!+\! \overline W^2)
\!+\!   \frac{8}{M^3} W^2 \overline W^2 \right] \!.
\end{eqnarray}
Then we re-insert the solution for $L$ into the dualizer Lagrangian
and we find the equivalent Lagrangian for $\Phi$.
The result is
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{d-2}
{\cal L}_D =  \frac12 \int d^4 \theta
(\Phi + \overline \Phi)^2 \left[ 1 +  \frac{2}{M^3} (W^2  +  \overline W^2)
+ \frac{8}{M^6} W^2 \overline W^2 \right] \,.
\end{eqnarray}
We see that the dual term has a form that looks like a higher derivative term,
however,
in a hidden way it is not.
This is guaranteed because we derived it from a 2-derivative theory.
Clearly the two-derivative structure can only be seen after a series of field redefinitions.
The term that mediates the quintessence supersymmetry breaking to the gaugini is manifest and it has the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\frac{1}{M^3} \int d^4 \theta
(\Phi + \overline \Phi)^2 W^2  +  c.c. \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
which is the form that we will use in the supergravity theory.
Interestingly we see that there is again a hidden shift symmetry in this coupling,
reminding the mediation of the breaking to the scalar moduli.
Notice also that if
\begin{eqnarray}
\langle A + \overline A \rangle = 0 \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
then all the higher order terms in \eqref{d-2} will in any case not contribute to the kinetic terms that would arise from the
superspace derivatives acting on $W^2$ or its complex conjugate.
Therefore \eqref{d-2} can be also treated as an effective perturbative expansion around the tree-level interactions,
and this is in fact how we will treat it in supergravity.

\subsection*{Coupling to supergravity}

We can now introduce the supergravity term that can mediate the quintessence supersymmetry breaking to the gaugini.
To be compatible with our working example in the previous section we will use the chiral superfield $T$ for the quintessence sector,
and we also preserve the same form for the mild shift symmetry.
To this end we will work with the term
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{med-1-sg}
{\cal L}_{med}  = \frac{1}{M^3} \int d^4 \theta E \,
(T - \overline T)^2 W^2  +  c.c. \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
and assume we couple it to a standard gauged 4D N=1 supergravity model.
We can conceptually think of having included also the higher order contribution $1/M^6$ of \eqref{d-2}
so that we get the correct mediation term in the rigid limit,
but this will not alter our discussion here in supergravity.
First let us recast \eqref{med-1-sg} in a more familiar form,
that is
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{med-sugra}
\begin{aligned}
{\cal L}_{med}  = & - \frac{1}{4M^3} \left[ \int d^2 \Theta \, 2 {\cal E} \,  W^2
\overline{\cal D}^2 (T - \overline T)^2 \right] +  c.c.
\\
& + \frac{2}{M^3} \left[ \int d^2 \Theta \, 2 {\cal E} \,
 {\cal R}
(T - \overline T)^2 W^2 \right] +  c.c.
\end{aligned}
\end{eqnarray}
We will now treat this term in an effective field theory approach and therefore we will
assume it only influences the theory in a perturbative way.
To this end we will keep only the leading contributions that survive once we set the fields to their background values.
In particular, as before,
we will assume that the complex scalar field $T$ will be given by
\begin{eqnarray}
T = \tau + i \zeta \,,
\end{eqnarray}
with the fields during the quintessence phase to be
\begin{eqnarray}
\zeta|_{quint} = 0 \ , \quad \tau|_{quint}  = \text{slow-rolling scalar}.
\end{eqnarray}
Then on such background there are no bosonic terms arising from \eqref{med-sugra},
and the only terms with two fermions are given by
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{med-expand}
e^{-1} {\cal L}_{med}  =  \frac{2}{M^3} \partial \tau \partial \tau \lambda^2
+ \frac{1}{M^3} \left( F_{mn} F^{mn} - 2 \text{D}^2 - \frac{i}{2} F_{mn} F_{kl} \epsilon^{klmn} \right) (\chi^T)^2 + c.c.  \,,
\end{eqnarray}
where $\chi^T$ are the fermion superpartners of $T$.
The fact that the terms $(\chi^T)^2$ are multiplied with D$^2$
means they get an extra mass contribution if the breaking is sourced also from the gauge multiplet.
Then we perform the standard Weyl rescaling
\begin{eqnarray}
g_{mn} \to e^{K/3} g_{mn} \, , \ \   e \to e^{2K/3} \,e  \, , \ \  \lambda \to e^{-K/4} \lambda \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
we give to the scalars $\tau$ their time-dependent profile,
and thus we find the effective masses of the gaugini (assuming a trivial gauge kinetic function)
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{mass-g}
\delta m_{gaugini} = - \frac{4}{M^3} e^{-K/6} \, \dot \tau^2 \, .
\end{eqnarray}
As we have seen in the previous examples such term can give a significant contribution to the effective mass.
Note of course that we can also include an arbitrary holomorphic function ${\cal M}(T)$
in \eqref{med-1-sg} to give different properties to the gaugino mass during the evolution of the quintessence phase,
and give to the mass \eqref{mass-g} an extra factor ${\cal M}(\tau)$.
Such modification will become crucial when one focuses on model building,
but goes beyond the scope of our work here.

\subsection*{Restrictions on the quintessence superpartner}

Let us also take the opportunity here to explore if the superspace couplings we are discussing can have some
direct signal to the observable sector,
and if such effects lead to restrictions.
As we will see the mediation term \eqref{med-1-sg} will impose a very strict phenomenological requirement:
the fermion superpartner of the quintessence sector has to decouple from the late-time cosmology.

Let us assume that we have a quintessence phase that,
as in our working example from the second section,
leads to
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{H^2}
\langle \dot \tau^2 \rangle \sim V_0^4 H^{-6} \sim 10^{-40} M_P^4 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Here we used the values from \eqref{num-1} and \eqref{num-2}.
Then if we want the gaugino mass \eqref{mass-g} to be of order TeV$\sim 10^{-15} M_P$,
we have to set
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{M-ex}
M \sim 10^{-8} M_P \sim 10^{11} \, \text{GeV} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
We have assumed $e^{-K/6} \sim 1$ here (and in the rest of this subsection)
without loss of generality because we could in any case invoke the extra holomorphic function
${\cal M}(T)$ that can enter \eqref{med-1-sg} to cancel the $e^{-K/6}$ factor in \eqref{mass-g}.
Now, among the various couplings of \eqref{med-expand},
after Weyl rescaling,
we find the derivative interaction
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{FF-ex}
{\cal L}_{med}  =  \frac{1}{M^3} e^{-K/6} \, F^{mn}F_{mn} \, (\overline \chi^T)_{\dot \alpha} (\overline \chi^T)^{\dot \alpha} + \dots
\end{eqnarray}
between the superpartner of the quintessence scalar and the standard model gauge bosons.
This interaction however is not describing the canonical fermion superpartner of the quintessence scalar.
Indeed,
it is now important to appreciate that for fields that belong to the same multiplet we are bound to have
\begin{eqnarray}
e^{-1} {\cal L}_{kin} = - \frac12 k(\tau) (\partial \tau)^2 - \frac12 k(\tau) (\partial \zeta)^2  - i k(\tau) \chi^T \sigma^n D_n \overline \chi^T  \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
which means to find the canonical $\chi^T$ interactions we have to rescale \eqref{FF-ex} with $k(\tau)$.
Then from the consistency of the slow-roll phase one expects to have
\begin{eqnarray}
k(\tau) \sim 10^{-80} \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
which means we have to redefine the fermion $\chi^T$ as
\begin{eqnarray}
\chi^T \sim 10^{40} \, \chi^T|_{norm} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Therefore the true suppression of the higher dimensional operator  \eqref{FF-ex}  in terms of canonically normalized fields
is very low,
and instead of $M$,
it is
\begin{eqnarray}
\tilde M \sim 10^{-15} \text{GeV} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Such strong interactions of $\chi^T$ with the standard model gauge bosons are in sharp contradiction with the standard model phenomenology.
However,
the coupling \eqref{med-expand} itself gives us the answer to this apparent phenomenological shortcoming,
because it can give to $\chi^T$ a large mass.
From \eqref{med-expand},
once we integrate out the auxiliary field D,
we also find a term of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{DD-ex}
{\cal L}_{med}  = - \frac{2}{M^3} e^{-K/6} \, \mathbb{D}^2 \, (\overline \chi^T)_{\dot \alpha} (\overline \chi^T)^{\dot \alpha} + \dots
\end{eqnarray}
where now $\mathbb{D}$ is the Killing potential related to the gauging,
and it is a moduli-dependent function.
Now,
it is realistic to assume that due to some shift in the VEVs of the scalar moduli the function $\mathbb{D}$ also gets a VEV,
that should be of course very small such that the quintessence phase is not threatened.
For example we could have
\begin{eqnarray}
\langle \mathbb{D} \rangle \sim 10^{-62} M_P^2 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Then the contribution to the effective mass of the canonically normalized $\chi^T$ will be
\begin{eqnarray}
\delta m_{\chi^T} \sim 10^{-10} M_P \sim 10^{9} \, \text{GeV} \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Therefore the fermion superpartner of the quintessence scalar will be very heavy and essentially
decouple from the late-time cosmological phase.
In other words the coupling \eqref{FF-ex} is in fact not part of the low energy effective field theory.
This also means that the supersymmetry breaking in the low-energy effective field theory
becomes explicit and not spontaneous.

We can also check what type of interactions are generated once the heavy fermion is integrated out.
For example,
if we do not go to the unitary gauge, we have a mixing with the gravitino of the form
$k(\tau) \dot \tau \, \overline \chi^T \overline \sigma^m \sigma^0 \overline \psi_m$.
Then once we integrate out $\chi^T$ we find
$\overline \chi^T \sim k(\tau) \dot \tau \, \overline \sigma^m \sigma^0 \overline \psi_m M^3 / \mathbb{D}^2$.
Once we insert this back into \eqref{FF-ex} we find an effective interaction of the form
$F_{mn}^2 \psi_l^2 /M^3$
which does not pose a threat to the low energy theory as it is suppressed by the high energy cut-off $M$.
A complete study of the low energy effective theory after integrating out $\chi^T$ is left for future work.

\subsection*{New-minimal supergravity?}

Until now we have focused on the old-minimal formulation of supergravity.
We would like now to contemplate on what could be different if one uses the new-minimal formulation
instead (for new-minimal supergravity see e.g. \cite{Ferrara:1988qxa,Ferrara:2018dyt}).
The duality between the two formulations has been established in \cite{Ferrara:1983dh}
but we will see here that some interesting simplifications take place if we discuss the gaugino
mediation term directly in the new-minimal setup.
Notably, the duality between new-minimal and old-minimal has been proven in \cite{Ferrara:1983dh}
only in the presence of chiral and vector multiplets and without higher derivative terms.
Instead from \eqref{d-2} we see that the chiral superfield version of the gaugino mediation term resembles a higher derivative term,
which may be the obstruction to performing the full duality.
Such obstruction would mean that the new-minimal supergravity version of the gaugino mediation term
could not be described within old-minimal supergravity.

In the new-minimal formulation of supergravity there is a gauged R-symmetry and so one requires
the chiral superfields that enter the chiral integral $\int d^2 \theta \, {\cal E}$ to have overall chiral weight equal to n=1.
The chiral weights of the ingredients we will need for our discussion are
\begin{eqnarray}
n(L) = 0 \ , \quad  n(W^2) = 1 \ , \quad  n({\cal M}(\Phi^i)) = -1 \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
where $L$ is the real linear superfield, $W_\alpha$ is the standard chiral superfield associated to the gauge theory,
and ${\cal M}(\Phi^i)$ is a holomorphic function of the chiral superfields $\Phi^i$.
The latter are allowed to have arbitrary chiral weight.
Now,
once we act with a new-minimal superspace derivative on the real linear superfield we get a weight
\begin{eqnarray}
n( \overline{\cal D}_{\dot \alpha} L) = \frac12 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
The advantage of new-minimal supergravity is that $\overline{\cal D}_{\dot \alpha} L$ is also a bona fide chiral multiplet,
just as in rigid supersymmetry,
therefore we have
\begin{eqnarray}
\overline{\cal D}^2 L = 0
\ , \quad
\overline{\cal D}_{\dot \beta} \left( \overline{\cal D}_{\dot \alpha} L \, \overline{\cal D}^{\dot \alpha} L \right) = 0 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
As a result we are allowed to introduce a term of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{new-min}
{\cal L}_{new} = \int d^2 \theta \, {\cal E} \, W^2 \, {\cal M}(\Phi^i) \, \overline{\cal D}_{\dot \alpha} L \overline{\cal D}^{\dot \alpha} L + c.c.
\end{eqnarray}
The first thing we notice is that,
in contrast to old-minimal supergravity,
the term \eqref{new-min} is in fact K\"ahler invariant.
This happens because in new-minimal supergravity K\"ahler invariance has the same form as in
the rigid theory,
that is (for $H$ chiral) we have
\begin{eqnarray}
\int d^4 \theta E \tilde K \ \to \ \  \int d^4 \theta E (\tilde K + H + \overline H) =  \int d^4 \theta E \tilde K \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
up to boundary terms of course.
Here $\tilde K$ is a real function that relates to the K\"ahler potential of standard supergravity,
that is $K$,
but is not restricted to have $det \tilde K_{i \overline j}>0$ \cite{Ferrara:1988qxa}.
As is shown in \cite{Ferrara:1988qxa} the K\"ahler transformation of $K$ does indeed correspond to the transformation
$\tilde K \to \tilde K + H + \overline H$ of $\tilde K$.
As a result K\"ahler invariance is not related to super-Weyl transformations here.
The second observation is that one could identify ${\cal M}(\Phi^i)$ with $P(\Phi^i)^{-1}$,
where $P(\Phi^i)$ is the superpotential,
as long as the gravitino mass is non-vanishing on the background.
Finally we see that on dimensional grounds we need
\begin{eqnarray}
[{\cal M}(\Phi^i)] = - 3 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
Now let us turn to the component field analysis.
The chiral density in new-minimal supergravity is
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{2Ep}
{\cal{E}}=e \left\{ 1+ i\theta \sigma^{a} \overline{\psi}_a
-\theta \theta\Big{(} \overline{\psi}_a\overline{\sigma}^{ab}\overline{\psi}_b
\Big{)} \right\} \, .
\end{eqnarray}
Then one can see that expanding \eqref{new-min} in components gives a result equivalent to \eqref{med-2},
and so will not give rise to terms with more than two auxiliary fields or with higher derivatives.
The properties of the ingredients involved in such expansion can be found for example in \cite{Ferrara:1988qxa,FVP,Ferrara:2018dyt}.
In particular,
due to the form of \eqref{2Ep}
the two-fermi terms have again the form \eqref{med-2} and give rise to a Majorana mass for the gaugino
on a quintessence background
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{new-min-comp}
{\cal L}_{new} = e \frac{{\cal M}(A^i)}{2} \lambda^2 \left( \partial_a a + i H_a \right)^2 + \dots
\end{eqnarray}
Because again of the structure of the new-minimal supergravity we also notice that
we can do the identification
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{sugra-X}
X = \overline{\cal D}_{\dot \alpha} L \, \overline{\cal D}^{\dot \alpha} L \, .
\end{eqnarray}
This is a nilpotent chiral superfield with the properties
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{NLX-nm}
\overline{\cal D}_{\dot \alpha} X = 0 \ , \quad X^2 =0 \ , \quad \langle F^X \rangle \ne 0 \,.
\end{eqnarray}
As a result,
the term \eqref{new-min} is in fact the standard term describing the mediation
of the supersymmetry breaking to the gaugini also in supergravity,
namely
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{X-sugra-med}
\int d^2 \theta \, {\cal E} \,{\cal M}(\Phi^i) \, X \, W^2 + c.c.
\end{eqnarray}
From here we can get another indication
why in the new-minimal formulation the
quintessence-gaugini
mediation term is not expected to give rise to higher derivatives.
We can keep \eqref{X-sugra-med} with $X$ un-restricted,
and impose that $X= \overline{\cal D}_{\dot \alpha} L \overline{\cal D}^{\dot \alpha} L$ via a term of the form
\begin{eqnarray}
\label{dual-sugra}
\int d^2 \theta {\cal E} \, Z X + 2 \int d^4 \theta E \, Z L^2 + c.c. \, ,
\end{eqnarray}
where $Z$ is a chiral Lagrange multiplier of vanishing chiral weight.
From \eqref{dual-sugra} once we integrate out $Z$ we get \eqref{sugra-X}.
The important observation now is that \eqref{X-sugra-med} and \eqref{dual-sugra} are terms
that in principle belong to the standard 2-derivative supergravity,
which means they are not expected to include higher derivatives or higher order auxiliary fields.
We leave a careful study of the full component expansion of \eqref{new-min} for a future work,
where one should also couple to a simple new-minimal supergravity model,
integrate out the auxiliary fields and study the dynamics.

\section{Discussion and outlook}

There has been a renewed interest in the study of quintessence models within string theory and supergravity.
This interest has been sparked from the difficulty to identify controlled de Sitter vacua in string theory,
and from the various swampland conjectures that restrict de Sitter directly \cite{Obied:2018sgi,Andriot:2018wzk,Dvali:2018fqu,Denef:2018etk,Garg:2018reu,Andriot:2018ept,
Ooguri:2018wrx,Hebecker:2018vxz,Banlaki:2018ayh,Dasgupta:2018rtp,Andriot:2018mav,Andriot:2019wrs,
Agrawal:2018own,Kehagias:2018uem,Andriot:2020lea,Bernardo:2020lar}
or indirectly \cite{Lanza:2020qmt,Bedroya:2020rac,Farakos:2020wfc,Cribiori:2020use}.

In this work we investigated the impact of the quintessence phase on the moduli stabilization
and the induced mass splitting within supermultiplets.
We established that there is indeed an additional contribution to the net supersymmetry breaking
that arises due to kinetic mixings
and that it my help in addressing the F-term problem \cite{Hebecker:2019csg}.
The effect of such mixing can go either way:
in some cases it gives a significant positive mass and helps strongly stabilize the moduli,
in other cases it may be innocuous,
and in some instances it may lead to huge tachyonic masses for the moduli and spoil
quintessence all together.
Therefore one would have to investigate the impact of these terms independently in each string theory quintessence model.
Here instead we have only illustrated the various possibilities with some simple examples in 4D N=1 supergravity.
In addition,
even if the F-term problem is resolved by some other mechanism,
the couplings that we discussed here may in any case play a role in the superpartner masses.

We have also presented a specific superspace term that can induce Majorana
gaugini masses on a quintessence background and studied few of its properties.
We have seen that in the new-minimal formulation such term takes a very simple form
and we have argued that it does not lead to higher derivatives
(or higher order auxiliary field equations).
It would be even more surprising if such a completely new term also exists in old-minimal supergravity
in a way that does not give rise to higher derivatives.
Instead, our strategy here was to identify this term in the rigid limit
and then we used it as a perturbation in old-minimal supergravity.
However,
since the new-minimal formulation of supergravity can consistently accommodate such term,
one important future direction is to either perform the duality from new-minimal to old-minimal,
or otherwise study quintessence directly within new-minimal supergravity.
Massive vector multiplets may offer an interesting framework to construct such models
and mediate the quintessence supersymmetry breaking \cite{VanProeyen:1979ks,Farakos:2013cqa,Ferrara:2013rsa,Aldabergenov:2016dcu}.

Finally,
we studied the couplings of the quintessence superpartner with matter
in a setup where the quintessence supersymmetry breaking generates TeV gaugini masses.
We found that generically it will have significant interactions with the standard model gauge sector,
but,
it will also generically receive a large mass that can be pushed up to the cut-off,
and so it will decouple from the low energy theory.
A careful analysis of the resulting low energy theory and its phenomenological implications is left for future work.

\section*{Acknowledgments}
I would like to thank A. Hebecker and A. Kehagias for very helpful correspondence and N. Cribiori for discussion.
This work is supported by the STARS grant SUGRA-MAX.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


The impact of the recent heavy rainfall and storms has resulted in severe coastal erosion to the beach access ramp at Hat Head known as 'the breakout'.
After monitoring and assessing the sand dunes, Kempsey Shire Council has had no choice but to close off the access for the safety of locals and visitors.
"The storm caused severe erosion and has resulted in a 1.2 metre drop off the dune at the 4WD access point," Council's Acting Manager of Engineering Works, Tony Green, said.
"At this stage it isn't known when the access can be reopened as the sand dunes are very unstable.
Alternate access for 4WDs remains available to and from the beach from the northern end near Smoky Cape. No vehicles are permitted to drive through the main beach swimming area at Hat Head, accessed from the boat ramp.
Mr Green said Council will continue to monitor the situation and will restore the access when the beach conditions allow.


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I was a little nervous purchasing this set online, but I couldn't find anything else I liked better. At first, I was disappointed with the bun feet because the larger picture and description indicated block feet. But I like them now and really like the wood color. Love the leather. I ordered leather samples which arrived within days and chose Cairo Luggage to go with light blue, tan, and brown floral pillows I'd purchased for a "girls" family room (the "boys" got the media room). I also thought the size of the couch and chair would be bigger and deeper, but they ended up fitting perfectly in the space, though larger would have worked too. They're very comfortable. And, with the shape of the ottoman, I placed it in the corner with pillows to make an inviting window seat area. Overall, it's been a good experience. I would order from Leather Furniture Expo again. And I would recommend this set. Monroe Leather Conversation Sofa Set Hannah R.


text:
Home » Crime » 2023 » Jan
Man Arrested for Glock Switch Allegations
A handgun with an illegal switch attached | Image by CBS DFW
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) arrested a Dallas man who allegedly sold illegal Glock switches, according to a news release.
On December 28, 2022, 22-year-old Jeremiah Dwyen Ashley was taken into custody and indicted on two counts of possession of an unregistered firearm.
Ashley conducted the alleged sales of the switches via Instagram, according to the ATF.
When the agency learned of Ashley allegedly selling illegal switches online, an agent reached out to him to make an undercover purchase.
Glock switches are illegal devices that transform a semi-automatic handgun into a fully automatic handgun.
A semi-automatic firearm differs from a fully automatic firearm in that it can only fire one bullet per trigger pull, while a fully automatic firearm fires multiple rounds of ammunition with just one squeeze of the trigger.
"Switches transform regular pistols into weapons of war, only suitable for use by soldiers on the battlefield," U.S. Attorney Leigha Simonton argued in a public statement. "We cannot and will not allow switches to proliferate on the streets of north Texas."
Before his arrest, Ashley met with an undercover officer at a gas station in Garland on May 24.
The undercover officer asked Ashley how the devices worked, and the suspect allegedly showed him how to install a switch on a pistol. The officer apparently went on to purchase three Glock switches from Ashley for $1,200.
After law enforcement officials confirmed Ashley's identity, they reached out to him again on Instagram to set up another undercover purchase and reportedly received a screenshot of UPS tracking information from him in response.
UPS security personnel explained to law enforcement that the package was addressed to another individual and was part of a three-parcel shipment that originated from a company in Taiwan.
On June 10, ATF entered a UPS distribution facility and confiscated all three packages.
Inside the packages were 30 Glock switches that were surrounded by metal screws in an apparent effort to conceal them.
On June 14, a law enforcement agent posed as a package delivery person and delivered the packages to Ashley. After waiting an adequate amount of time for Ashley to open the packages to confirm their contents, officers executed a search warrant on his apartment.
At this time Ashley allegedly admitted that he knew the packages contained Glock switches and confirmed to agents that he understood the purpose of a switch, according to the release.
He also reportedly told officers that, while someone else had ordered the packages, they were intended for him and that he was known for selling switches on Instagram in his neighborhood.
"Nothing keeps me up at night more than the thought of a machine gun in the wrong hands. If not promptly investigated and arrested, Mr. Ashley would have continued to put these tools of violence on our streets," said ATF Dallas Field Division Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey C. Boshek II in a statement.
"Citizens of North Texas need to know that ATF and all our law enforcement partners are doing everything we can to prevent machine gun conversion devices from being used and sold unlawfully. These are not toys or souvenirs; these are terrifying."
If convicted Ashley faces up to 20 years in federal prison, a decade per count.
According to Dallas police, there have been 318 criminal incidents involving a firearm so far this year. Murder, assaults, and sexual assaults are all up as well.
The Dallas Express routinely tracks crimes occurring in the city and traces them to the district leader responsible for endangering residents. Councilmember Jaynie Schultz of District 11 has the dubious honor of being named January's Crime Boss of the Month based on crime data showing an 18.16% hike year-over-year in December.
Man Arrested in Teen Murder, Body Dumping
Officer Injured, Suspect Killed in Shootout
Potential Blackmail Motive in Kelley Killing
Local Beverage CEO Sentenced to Prison

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Atlanta Ikea 'Insulted' Black Employees with Juneteenth Menu
An Atlanta Ikea is receiving backlash from its employees after releasing a menu that was meant to honor Juneteenth.
According to CBS46 on Tuesday, employees of the Midtown furniture store say the menu — reportedly comprising fried chicken, watermelon, mac and cheese, collard greens, and other items — was released last Friday as a way to "honor and persevere Black Americans" in light of the federal holiday, which celebrates the end of slavery.
However, staffers are not only accusing the menu of being written by non-Black employees but they also say the selection of foods is racially insensitive.
"You cannot say serving watermelon on Juneteenth is a soul food menu when you don't even know the history. They used to feed slaves watermelon during the slave time," an anonymous employee said.
Employees were so outraged by the menu that a reported 33 people called out from work.
"It caused a lot of people to be upset. People actually wanted to quit. People weren't coming back to work."
Following the callouts, the store manager released an internal memo apologizing for the snafu.
According to CBS News, the apology read in part, "I truly apologize if the menu came off as subjective. It was created with the best of intentions by a few of our coworkers who believed they were representing their culture and tradition with these foods of celebration."
Although the manager reportedly told employees, as well as CBS46, that the menu was changed, staffers say it was simply put off by a day.
"They just delayed the menu by a day. Thinking that everyone who was upset by the Juneteenth menu stayed home on Juneteenth and wouldn't notice, which just added insult to injury."
Per CBS46, the revised menu included collard greens, corn bread, mashed potatoes, and meatloaf.
The anonymous employee also took a photo of the food and told the outlet that "fried chicken, mac and cheese, collard greens" were still served the day after Juneteenth.
A customer also chimed in on the controversy, telling the outlet, "I'm just frankly disappointed in the learning process. You shouldn't learn after you have insulted all of your Black employees."
News Saturday, January 15
The Week in News
This week, Hollywood mourned the passing of comedian and actor Bob Saget, Machine Gun Kelly and Megan Fox got engaged, and our very own Jeannie revealed she gave birth to her first child with husband Jeezy!
News Friday, January 14
'OITNB' Star Danielle Brooks Got Married!
Danielle Brooks is officially a married woman!
Michael B. Jordan Celebrates GF Lori Harvey's Birthday with Cute Beach Video!
Michael B. Jordan is celebrating his "patna in crime," girlfriend Lori Harvey!


text:
Shyam Bhatia (born 1950) is an Indian-born British journalist, writer and war reporter based in London. He has reported from conflict zones such as the Middle East, Afghanistan and Sudan, and is a former diplomatic editor of The Observer. He has also served as US correspondent and Foreign Editor of the Bangalore-based Deccan Herald and Editor of Asian Affairs magazine in London.

Bhatia was educated at The Doon School in India and Leighton Park School in England before going to the University of Oxford. He is a columnist for the Indian Express. He has published several books based on his war reporting, and a political biography of the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Benazir Bhutto (who was his contemporary at Oxford). In 1993, he won the Foreign Reporter of the Year for his coverage of the suffering of the Marsh Arabs in Southern Iraq. His May 2021 keynote interview about the spread of Covid with Dr Jerome Kim of the International Vaccine Institute was published by The Wire and broadcast on Youtube.

Bibliography

References

External links

 The Guardian profile

1950 births
Living people
People from Delhi
Indian male journalists
Alumni of the University of Oxford
Writers from Delhi
20th-century Indian writers
21st-century Indian writers
The Observer people
War correspondents
Indian Express Limited people
The Doon School alumni
People educated at Leighton Park School
British reporters and correspondents
Writers on the Middle East

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Lack of clarity, overinflated expectations, or lack of skilled data scientists to draw meaningful insights may have been significant contributors to the 60% projects that crumbled at the pilot stage. But even if all these factors are in place now, one major hurdle that remains in the first wave big data projects is the quality of the data lakes. During the early stages of implementation, organizations prioritized their time, effort and resources in procuring cutting-edge technology solutions. Eventually, that meant that the investment in standardizing, securing and preparing the metadata was completely neglected, or not sufficient. Even today, this critical step is often overlooked in favour of procuring new AI/ML-based solutions. This is especially true in Canada, where large amounts of initial investments are being made in TOR-MTL-EDM.
Let's take a quick look at why big data may be so critical, and what we can learn from the first-generation projects.
Why Big Data or AI Matters?
The potential of big data solutions is unlimited. A successful project starts with pointing your system to a specific need or business solution to get meaningful, cost-effective, data-driven insights. These can transform various areas of your business operations, including pricing models, market expansion, and operational efficiencies. They can also enrich your engagement with multiple stakeholders through product or service innovation, risk monitoring, compliance standards, and more.
Progressive organizations, especially those with deep pockets, are also closely monitoring the possibilities that Artificial Intelligence presents. They are all ears for how AI tech deployment can give their businesses a competitive advantage.
Whether it is AI, big data, business analytics, or any other intelligence mining solution, the idea is simple. Organizations can combine large pools of data from different sources (for example: CRM, social media and website data) and derive holistic insights that touch multiple functions. These deployments will benefit not just their profit centers, but also their support functions such as HR, Risk Management, Marketing and others. Every business unit will be able to adopt more accurate and targeted strategies to achieve their business goals.
All big data and AI solutions are supported by massive repositories (also known as data lakes), that house the data from different sources in a single place. Data lakes knock down the boundaries between departments and enable sharing of critical information. This helps organizations draw meaningful, actionable insights for creative business strategies. So, what was lacking in the first wave of big data projects?
Insufficiencies in Data Quality: Unfortunately, the first generation of data lakes prioritized quantity over quality. A massive amount of information was added without proper governance measures. Not only did the data lack basic standardization, but organizations did not visualize its future use and failed to account for its completeness or accuracy. These insufficiencies are now showing up when business users try to generate reports that dip into these data lakes for their information. Simply put, it has become a case of garbage in, garbage out.
Time Consuming Data Warehousing Process: Several organizations continue to work with a traditional data warehousing model. While this model supports thousands of concurrent users and performs basic to advanced analytics, it involves a lengthy and complicated process to transform the heterogeneous metadata into desired outputs. When business users want to extract insights from the organization's big data environment, they have to define their requirements in a spreadsheet and then develop an ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) code that preps the data for processing. In addition to being time consuming, this process also increases the users' dependencies on their IT teams.
Technical Standardization: Clean and standardize data to speed up the results and optimize costs. It will also help to keep a better control on the consumption and interpretation of information.
Secure the Data: Catalogue the data, create the governance structures and security protocols and introduce formal policies for controlling the where, who, what, and when of any data being consumed. After all, no organization wants its information to be untraceable or uncontrollable in these modern big data environments.
Prepare the Data: Properly prepare the metadata and ensure that it is complete and accurate before it is ingested into any big data environment. A good estimation of how the organization's information will be used will help to prevent inconsistencies in reports and avoid biased outcomes.
Automated Ingestion: If it is financially and technically feasible, organizations should evaluate and implement automated tools that make structured or unstructured data ingestion fast and hassle-free.
The starting point of any big data project is a thorough understanding of the business problems that an organization wants to target, or the value-add that it wishes to derive. Consequently, it is vital to invest sufficient time and resources to clean, secure and prepare the organization data before deploying any big data, analytics or AI projects.
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On Saturday 26th April 'IBTA' had the opportunity to spend a day visiting PortAventura Convention Centre, Hotel Caribe, Hotel PortAventura and Hotel Gold River, where they stayed with direct access to PortAventura Park.
During this day some members of the PortAventura Business & Events sales team gave the IBTA team a guided tour of the centre's facilities. Among the attendees who were able to enjoy this visit were: Juli Buriel, General Manager of IBTA and Meritxell Gacimartín IBTA Communications Director, in addition to managers and representatives from companies such as Thea Laboratories, Autoglass, Farma Group, Jungheinrich, Global Event and Nissan.
Team members were able to enjoy a welcome dinner at Hotel Gold River's Opera restaurant set in the Wild West. During the visit they did not pass up the opportunity to soak up the warm setting that recreates the fishing village of Mediterrània, savouring the moment with a glass of wine in the Vinosfera restaurant and later with a paella in the authentically Mediterranean Raco de Mar.
"These days have been packed and in my case I have returned to relive the spirit of PortAventura", "It was a surprise to discover the magnificent convention centre and the possibilities that Port Aventura offers as a whole" were the impressions of David Catalán, Autoglass Customer Service, and Berta Sanchís, Nissan, respectively.
'Fam Trip Travel Manager': a product familiarisation trip.
'Fam Trip' is not only organised as a visit to the park, but also with the objective of gaining a better understanding of what the resort has to offer by way of events and conferences. With this first contact with the space, in 2014, the MICE sector will take on a more prominent role in future visits.


text:
Book Review: 'Power' by Jeffrey Pfeffer
Power: Why Some People Have It – and Others Don't
Jeffrey Pfeffer
Harper Business (2010)
Although Pfeffer does not invoke the core metaphor from Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" in The Republic, I think it is especially relevant to the various misconceptions about power that Pfeffer refutes. The situation in Plato's allegory is that people are located in a darkened cave watching shadows dance on a wall. (The source of light is outside the cave.) They think they are watching ultimate realities. Rather, what they observe are images, yes, but also distortions. The same is true of the "just world hypothesis" that the world is predictable, comprehensible, and therefore potentially controllable. Worse yet, it implies that "people get what they deserve; that is, that the good people are likely to be rewarded and the bad to be punished. Most important," Pfeffer adds, "the phenomenon works in reverse: if someone is seen to prosper, there is a social psychological tendency for observers to decide that the lucky person must have done something to deserve his good fortune."
Pfeffer insists that the world is neither just nor unjust: it is. He also challenges "leadership literature" (including his contributions to it) because celebrity CEOs who tout their own careers as models tend to "gloss over power plays they actually used to get to the top" whereas authors such as Pfeffer offer "prescriptions about how people wish the world and the powerful behaved." Pfeffer also suggests that those aspiring to power "are often their own worst enemy, and not just in the arena of building power" because of self-handicapping, a reluctance (perhaps even a refusal) to take initiatives that may fail and thereby diminish one's self-image. "I have come to believe that the biggest single effect I can have is to get people to try to become powerful." Pfeffer wrote this book as an operations manual for the acquisition and retention of power. Of even greater importance, in my opinion, he reveals the ultimate realities of what power is…and isn't…and thereby eliminates the shadows of illusion and self-deception that most people now observe in the "caves" of their own current circumstances.
As is his SOP in all of the other books he has authored or co-authored, Pfeffer cites an abundance of research studies to support what are therefore evidence-driven observations, insights, and recommendations. For example, consider this passage that appears near the end of his book: "Michael Marmot's study of 18,000 British civil servants – all people working in office jobs – in the same society – uncovered that people at the bottom of the hierarchy had four times the risk of death as those at the top. [Check out Marmot's The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health, published by Times Books.] Controlling for risk factors such as smoking or obesity did not make the social gradient in health disappear, nor did statistically controlling for longevity of one's parents. As Marmot concludes, `Social circumstances in life predict health.' So seek power as if your life depends on it. Because it does." (Page 236)
Much of great value has been written about how to establish and then sustain a "healthy" organization. The fact remains, that cannot be achieved without enough people who possess sufficient power. In my opinion, Jeffrey Pfeffer is determined (obsessed?) to increase the number of such people, one reader at a time. Hopefully those who read this book will help others to acquire the power they need to be successful, influential, and most important of all healthy.
Editor's note: This review was written by Robert Morris and has been published with his permission. Like what you read? Subscribe to the SFRB's free daily email notice so you can be up-to-date on our latest articles. Scroll up this page to the sign-up field on your right.


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We are experiencing issue with - https://premium.wpmudev.org/project/sitemaps-and-seo-wordpress-mu-style mu-plugin.
I have reviewed - https://premium.wpmudev.org/forums/topic/httacces-issue-problem, but not related to my topic.
If we install plugin as per the install.txt instruction we get the white screen of death.
Is this plugin compatible with latest Buddypress?
Do you have a previously installed (and activated) instance of All in one SEO Pack by chance?
If you do, then you'll get a white screen.
Just deactivate it and everything will work perfectly.
However guys, any idea on how it would be possible to get the nicely formatted output for the sitemap like the one of the sitemap-for-wpmu plugin by followta?
Blank screens indicate errors. Please look in your error log and post anything relevant here.
This particular plugin isn't one we've made from scratch ourselves. It's just a version of the official plugin that has the admin panel options removed to keep from confusing bloggers. So I'm afraid BuddyPress compatibility falls to the original developer.
Please start a new thread unless your issue is identical to the issue being discussed in a thread.


Jessica Rowe is an accomplished journalist, television presenter, speaker and author—but one of her proudest accomplishments? Being a crap housewife. In her household, it's a badge of honour … and she invites other women to embrace it too. Ever given your kids a crap dinner? Had a crap-ton of dishes piled in the sink?
So has Jess, and so have we all. The "crap housewife" movement has gained massive momentum online, with Jess's hilarious anecdotes, quick recipes and motherly wisdom resonating with women everywhere. Come and see the dynamic, exuberant personality of Jess in real life, and join us in celebrating viva la tour!


text:
appnet
"shows a delightful passion"
- Wired
A Little Bit About Kyle
If James Vander Beek and Hugh Grant met in international waters and had a love child, that would be Kyle Walters. Armed with a charming smirk and a relatable quirk, he's your friendly neighborhood actor guy.
Kyle Walters is an actor, producer, storyteller, reader of comic books and a generally nice and goofy dude. He grew up in Northern California in the heart of suburbia. He comes from a long line of All-American boys next door (in fact his grandma is a member of The Daughters of the American Revolution!)
Going on to graduating from NYU with a BFA in Drama, he has recently moved to Los Angeles. You may recognize him as the geeky love interest from Pemberley Digital's "Welcome to Sanditon" or as the quirky man child Peter Pan in "The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy" which he co-created and executive produced. Entertainment Weekly said this about him: "Walters, puppyish, is appealing as a manchild." He has also performed in numerous indie features, new media projects and plays.
Kyle's dream roles include: Yorick Brown in "Y The Last Man", someone (anyone) in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, an adult Little Nemo, Jules Verne, that guy in a "Friends" type show, an American companion to the first female Doctor Who, an animated koala bear, and more!
When Kyle isn't acting or producing, he's helping inspire imagination in our youth by being a performer and writing mentor in the amazing program Young Storytellers.
thekylewalters
#vote !
My episode of @manhuntshow airs tonight on @cbstv!
Happy #fathersday to all of the Amazing dads out t
I was just editing my new actor reel and I paused
This little nugget just turned 4 months old!!! I c
My daughter turns three months today! #daddydaught
Give it a watch and let me know what you think! A
Looking for something explosive to watch on #presi
Kyle Walters is an actor, artist, web designer, reader of comic books and a generally nice and goofy dude. Recent TV credits include Lionsgate/Spectrum's "Manhunt: Deadly Games" and Paramount's "Coyote". You may recognize him as the geeky love interest from Pemberley Digital's "Welcome to Sanditon" or as the quirky manchild Peter Pan in "The New Adventures of Peter and Wendy" which he co-created and executive produced. Entertainment Weekly said this about him "Walters, puppyish, is appealing as a manchild." He's also performed in numerous indie features, new media projects and plays. Kyle is currently facing his toughest audience with his new baby girl. Kyle has a charming smirk and a relatable quirk. For more: www.kylewalters.com
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© 2021 Kyle Walters | website by kyle (me!)


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