Supersymmetric electroweak symmetry breaking

In the minimal supersymmetric standard model (the MSSM), the electroweak symmetry is restored as supersymmetry-breaking terms are turned off. We describe a generic extension of the MSSM where the electroweak symmetry is broken in the supersymmetric limit. We call this limit the ''sEWSB'' phase, short for supersymmetric electroweak symmetry breaking. We define this phase in an effective field theory that only contains the MSSM degrees of freedom. The sEWSB vacua naturally have an inverted scalar spectrum, where the heaviest CP-even Higgs state has standard model-like couplings to the massive vector bosons; experimental constraints in the scalar Higgs sector are more easily satisfied than in the MSSM.