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Physical Society Colloquium
Zackaria Chacko Laurence Berkeley Laboratory Supersymmetry is the leading candidate for physics beyond the Standard Model. The mechanism which mediates supersymmetry breaking to matter charged under the Standard Model gauge groups is expected to determine the spectrum of particles seen at the next generation of collider experiments. Bounds on flavor changing neutral current processes (FCNCs) tightly constrain any possible mechanism. Mediation of supersymmetry breaking by gauge interactions at low energies gives a very predictive spectrum of supersymmetric particles that naturally satisfies experimental bounds from FCNCs. However it is extremely difficult to achieve a viable pattern of electroweak symmetry breaking from gauge mediation alone. In general supersymmetry breaking mediated by Yukawa interactions gives rise to large FCNCs and is therefore disfavored. However in the context of extra dimensions it is possible to construct highly predictive models in which supersymmetry breaking is mediated by both gauge and Yukawa interactions, and which naturally satisfy all experimental bounds from FCNCs. It is then also possible to achieve a simple realization of electroweak symmetry breaking. The same mechanism can be realized in four dimensions using the methods of extra dimensions in theory space or `deconstructed' extra dimensions.
Monday, March 11th 2002, 15:30 |