Naturalness from runaways in direct mediation

Postulating that the NMSSM singlet is a meson of a microscopic confining theory opens up new model-building possibilities. Based on this, we construct calculable models of direct mediation that solve the mu/Bmu problem and simultaneously lead to realistic phenomenology. The singlet that couples to the Higgs fields develops a runaway produced by soft interactions, then stabilized by a small superpotential perturbation. The mechanism is first realized in an O'Raifeartaigh model of direct gauge mediation with metastable supersymmetry breaking. Focusing then on the microscopic theory, we argue that super QCD with massless and massive flavors in the free magnetic phase gives rise to this dynamics in the infrared. A deformation of the SQCD superpotential leads to large spontaneous R-symmetry breaking, gaugino masses naturally at the scale of the Higgs mass parameters, and absence of CP violating phases.