Flavor violation in supersymmetry

Abstract

This thesis work is meant as an introduction to supersymmetry and its phenomenological implications for the basic features of the standard model of electroweak interactions, it continues with a through denition and basic derivation of the fundamental concepts of supersymmetric eld theories, including superspace, supereld and superpotential.In a supersymmetric theory, all interactions are to be symmetric under the exchange of bosons and fermions { the superpartners. However, supersymmetry must be an explicitly yet softly broken symmetry of nature, and supersymmetry breaking parameters, the so-called soft terms, give rise to various phenomena observable at present and future experiments. The mixing among different flavors of matter-the flavor violation { is one such phenomenon which exhibits a strong dependence on the structure of the soft terms. In particular, decoupling of superpartners from the particle spectrum at a threshold energy near the ultraviolet scale of the standard model induces sizeable corrections to flavor violating interactions. These correctionsare strong enough to disqualify an otherwise viable high-scale flavor model by a confrontation with experiments at low energy. This thesis work focusses a class of flavor models, following from strings or supergravity, and provides a through analysis of their sensitivities to supersymmetric threshold corrections.