We introduce a lattice fermion model in one spatial dimension with supersymmetry (SUSY) but without particle number conservation. The Hamiltonian is defined as the anticommutator of two nilpotent supercharges $Q$ and $Q^{†}$. Each supercharge is built solely from spinless fermion operators and depends on a parameter $g$. The system is strongly interacting for small $g$, and in the extreme limit $g=0$, the number of zero-energy ground states grows exponentially with the system size. By contrast, in the large-$g$ limit, the system is noninteracting and SUSY is broken spontaneously. We study the model for modest values of $g$ and show that under certain conditions spontaneous SUSY breaking occurs in both finite and infinite chains. We analyze the low-energy excitations both analytically and numerically. Our analysis suggests that the Nambu-Goldstone fermions accompanying the spontaneous SUSY breaking have cubic dispersion at low energies.

• Received 28 December 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.95.065001