Search

In this paper, which is of programmatic rather than quantitative nature, we aim to further delineate and sharpen the future potential of the LISA mission in the area of fundamental physics. Given the very broad range of topics that might be relevant to LISA, we present here a sample of what we view as particularly promising directions, based in part on the current research interests of the LISA scientific community in the area of fundamental physics. We organize these directions through a "science-first" approach that allows us to classify how LISA data can inform theoretical physics in a variety of areas. For each of these theoretical physics classes, we identify the sources that are currently expected to provide the principal contribution to our knowledge, and the areas that need further development. The classification presented here should not be thought of as cast in stone, but rather as a fluid framework that is amenable to change with the flow of new insights in theoretical physics., Comment: 22 pages, 1 figure, to appear in General Relativity and Gravitation

Cosmological perturbations of FRW solutions in ghost free massive bigravity, including also a second matter sector, are studied in detail. At early time, we find that sub horizon exponential instabilities are unavoidable and they lead to a premature departure from the perturbative regime of cosmological perturbations., Comment: latex, 14 pages

We study in a systematic way a generic nonderivative (massive) deformation of general relativity using the Hamiltonian formalism. The number of propagating degrees of freedom is analyzed in a nonperturbative and background independent way. We show that the condition of having only five propagating degrees of freedom can be cast in a set of differential equations for the deforming potential. Though the conditions are rather restrictive, many solutions can be found., Comment: 5 pages. Final version published in PRD rapid communications

We study FRW homogeneous cosmological solutions in the recently found ghost free massive gravity. In previous works it was shown that when the additional extra metric, needed to generate the mass term, is taken as non-dynamical and flat, no homogeneous FRW cosmology exists. We show that, when the additional metric is a dynamical field, a perfectly safe FRW universe exists. FRW solutions fall in two branches. In the first branch the massive deformation is equivalent to an effectively generated cosmological constant whose scale is determined by the graviton mass. The second branch is quite rich: we have FRW cosmology in the presence of a "gravitational" fluid. The control parameter xi is the ratio of the two conformal factors. When xi is large, generically the cosmological evolution greatly differs from GR at the early time. In the small xi region, the evolution is similar to GR and the universe flows at late time toward an attractor represented by a dS phase., Comment: 12 pages. Final version published in JHEP

Recently, a class of theories of massive gravity has been shown to be ghost-free. We study the spherically symmetric solutions in the bigravity formulation of such theories. In general, the solutions admit both a Lorentz invariant and a Lorentz breaking asymptotically flat behaviour and also fall in two branches. In the first branch, all solutions can be found analitycally and are Schwarzschild-like, with no modification as is found for other classes of theories. In the second branch, exact solutions are hard to find, and relying on perturbation theory, Yukawa-like modifications of the static potential are found. The general structure of the solutions suggests that the bigravity formulation of massive gravity is crucial and more than a tool., Comment: 15 pages. Some change in the references

A systematic study of the different phases of Lorentz-breaking massive gravity in a curved background is performed. For tensor and vector modes, the analysis is very close to that of Minkowski space. The most interesting results are in the scalar sector where, generically, there are two propagating degrees of freedom (DOF). While in maximally symmetric spaces ghost-like instabilities are inevitable, they can be avoided in a FRW background. The phases with less than two DOF in the scalar sector are also studied. Curvature allows an interesting interplay with the mass parameters; in particular, we have extended the Higuchi bound of dS to FRW and Lorentz breaking masses. As in dS, when the bound is saturated there is no propagating DOF in the scalar sector. In a number of phases the smallness of the kinetic terms gives rise to strongly coupled scalar modes at low energies. Finally, we have computed the gravitational potentials for point-like sources. In the general case we recover the GR predictions at small distances, whereas the modifications appear at distances of the order of the characteristic mass scale. In contrast with Minkowski space, these corrections may not spoil the linear approximation at large distances., Comment: 25 pages

A phase of massive gravity free from pathologies can be obtained by coupling the metric to an additional spin-two field. We study the gravitational field produced by a static spherically symmetric body, by finding the exact solution that generalizes the Schwarzschild metric to the case of massive gravity. Besides the usual 1/r term, the main effects of the new spin-two field are a shift of the total mass of the body and the presence of a new power-like term, with sizes determined by the mass and the shape (the radius) of the source. These modifications, being source dependent, give rise to a dynamical violation of the Strong Equivalence Principle. Depending on the details of the coupling of the new field, the power-like term may dominate at large distances or even in the ultraviolet. The effect persists also when the dynamics of the extra field is decoupled., Comment: 24 pages, Latex JHEP style, added clarifications. Version accepted in JHEP

We investigate enhanced EW corrections to inclusive hard processes in the TeV energy region with emphasis on the small-x situation, in which the hard scale Q is significantly smaller than the available energy \sqrt{s}= Q/x. We first propose and justify a general factorization formula in which the (double-log) EW form factor at scale Q^2 is factorized from EW parton distribution functions, which satisfy evolution equations of DGLAP type. We then investigate the small-x behavior of the EW parton distributions including the novel ones for non-vanishing t-channel weak isospin T and we compare it with a BFKL-type approach. In either approach we find that large small-x corrections of order \alpha_w \log x \log Q^2/M^2 (M being the EW symmetry breaking scale) are present only for T=2 and not for T=1. This implies that only transverse WW interactions (coupled to T=2) are affected, while the T=1 components feel just the form factor at scale Q^2., Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures

We study a theory where the presence of an extra spin-two field coupled to gravity gives rise to a phase with spontaneously broken Lorentz symmetry. In this phase gravity is massive, and the Weak Equivalence Principle is respected. The newtonian potentials are in general modified, but we identify an non-perturbative symmetry that protects them. The gravitational waves sector has a rich phenomenology: sources emit a combination of massless and massive gravitons that propagate with distinct velocities and also oscillate. Since their velocities differ from the speed of light, the time of flight difference between gravitons and photons from a common source could be measured., Comment: 4 pages

Generalizations of gravitational Born-Infeld type lagrangians are investigated. Phenomenological constraints (reduction to Einstein-Hilbert action for small curvature, spin two ghost freedom and absence of Coulomb like Schwarschild singularity) select one effective lagrangian whose dynamics is dictated by the tensors g_{\mu\nu} and R_{\mu\nu\rho\sigma}(not R_{\mu\nu} or the scalar R)., Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, revtex

We analyze the action $\int d^4x \sqrt{\det||{\cal B} g_{\mu\nu}+ {\cal C} R_{\mu\nu}}||$ as a possible alternative or addition to the Einstein gravity. Choosing a particular form of ${\cal B}(R)= \sqrt {R}$ we can restore the Einstein gravity and, if ${\cal B}=m^2$, we obtain the cosmological constant term. Taking ${\cal B} = m^2 + {\cal B}_1 R$ and expanding the action in $ 1/m^2$, we obtain as a leading term the Einstein Lagrangian with a cosmological constant proportional to $m^4$ and a series of higher order operators. In general case of non-vanishing ${\cal B}$ and ${\cal C}$ new cosmological solutions for the Robertson-Walker metric are obtained., Comment: revtex format, 5 pages,8 figures,references added

We study Standard Model electroweak radiative corrections for fully inclusive observables with polarized fermionic beams. Our calculations are relevant in view of the possibility for Next Generation Linear colliders of having transversely and/or longitudinally polarized beams. The case of initial transverse polarization is particularly interesting because of the interplay of infrared/collinear logarithms of different origins, related both to the nonabelian SU(2) and abelian U(1) sectors. The Standard model effects turn out to be in the 10% range at the TeV scale, therefore particularly relevant in order to disentangle possible New Physics effects., Comment: 5 pages,4 figures

It is a puzzle why the densities of dark matter and dark energy are nearly equal today when they scale so differently during the expansion of the universe. This conundrum may be solved if there is a coupling between the two dark sectors. In this paper we assume that dark matter is made of cold relics with masses depending exponentially on the scalar field associated to dark energy. Since the dynamics of the system is dominated by an attractor solution, the dark matter particle mass is forced to change with time as to ensure that the ratio between the energy densities of dark matter and dark energy become a constant at late times and one readily realizes that the present-day dark matter abundance is not very sensitive to its value when dark matter particles decouple from the thermal bath. We show that the dependence of the present abundance of cold dark matter on the parameters of the model differs drastically from the familiar results where no connection between dark energy and dark matter is present. In particular, we analyze the case in which the cold dark matter particle is the lightest supersymmetric particle., Comment: 4 pages latex, 2 figures

We consider electroweak radiative corrections to hard inclusive processes at the TeV scale, and we investigate how collinear logarithms factorize in a spontaneously broken gauge theory, similarly to the DGLAP analysis in QCD. Due to the uncancelled double logs noticed previously, we find a factorization pattern which is qualitatively different from the analogous one in QCD. New types of splitting functions emerge which are needed to describe the initial beam charges and are infrared-sensitive, that is dependent on an infrared cutoff provided, ultimately, by the symmetry breaking scale. We derive such splitting functions at one-loop level in the example of SU(2) gauge theory, and we also discuss the structure functions' evolution equations, under the assumption that isospin breaking terms present in the Ward identities of the theory are sufficiently subleading at higher orders., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures

The TESLA Technical Design Report Part III: Physics at an e+e- Linear Collider, Comment: 192 pages, 131 figures. Some figures have reduced quality. Full quality figures can be obtained from http://tesla.desy.de/tdr. Editors - R.-D. Heuer, D.J. Miller, F. Richard, P.M. Zerwas

High energy observables are characterized by large electroweak radiative corrections of infrared origin; double logarithms are present even for inclusive cross sections, thus violating the Bloch Nordsieck theorem. This effect, related to the initial states carrying nonabelian isospin charges, is here investigated for {\sl any} inclusive cross section in the SU(2)$\otimes$U(1) symmetric limit, that is appropriate for energies much higher than the weak scale. We develop a general formalism allowing to calculate the all order double log resummed cross sections once the hard (tree level) ones are known. The relevant cases of fermion-fermion, fermion-boson and boson-boson scattering are discussed., Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures

Hard processes at the TeV scale exhibit enhanced (double log) EW corrections even for inclusive observables, leading to violation of the Bloch-Nordsieck theorem. This effect, previously related to the non abelian nature of free EW charges in the initial state (e- e+, e- p, p p ...), is here investigated for fermion initiated hard processes and to all orders in EW couplings. We find that the effect is important, especially for lepton initiated processes, producing weak effects that in some cases compete in magnitude with the strong ones. We show that this (double log) BN violating effect has a universal energy dependence, related to the Sudakov form factor in the adjoint representation. The role of this form factor is to suppress cross section differences within a weak isospin doublet, so that at very large energy the cross sections for left-handed electron-positron and neutrino-positron scattering become equal. Finally, we briefly discuss the phenomenological relevance of our results for future colliders., Comment: 18 pages, 6 figures, uses epsfig.sty and subequation.sty

We point out that, since the colliders initial states (e+ e-,p p, p pbar, ... ) carry a definite nonabelian flavor, electroweak radiative corrections to inclusive hard cross sections at the TeV scale are affected by peculiar Bloch-Nordsieck violating double logs. We recall the setup of soft cancellation theorems, and we analyze the magnitude of the noncancelling terms in the example of electron - positron annihilation into hadrons., Comment: Minor typos corrected, references added. Final version to appear on Phys. Rev. Lett

We study the leading log infrared behavior of electroweak corrections at TeV scale energies, that will be reached by next generation of linear colliders (NLC). We show that, contrary to what happens at typical LEP energies, it is not anymore possible to disentangle ``pure electroweak'' from ``photonic'' corrections. This means that soft QED effects do not factorize and therefore cannot be treated in the usual ``naive'' way they were accounted for in the LEP-era. The nonfactorizable effects come up first at the two loop LL level, that we calculate explicitly for a fermion source that is neutral under the SU(2)$\otimes$U(1) gauge group (explicitly, a Z' decay into two fermions). The basic formalism we set up can be used to calculate LL effects at any order of perturbation theory. The results of this paper might be important for future calculations of electroweak corrections at NLC energies., Comment: LaTeX, 8 pages, 3 figures

We compute the one loop contribution coming from vertex and box diagrams, where virtual top quarks are exchanged, to the asymptotic energy behaviour of $b\bar b$ pair production at future lepton colliders. We find that the effect of the top mass is an extra linear logarithmic term of Sudakov type that is not present in the case of (u,d,s,c) production. This appears to be particularly relevant in the case of the $b\bar{b}$ cross section., Comment: 9 pages and 3 figures; version submitted to Phys.ReV.D,Rapid. e-mail: renard@lpm.univ-montp2.fr

Starting from a theoretical representation of the electroweak component of four-fermion neutral current processes that uses as theoretical input the experimental measurements at the Z peak, we consider the asymptotic high energy behaviour in the Standard Model at one loop of those gauge-invariant combinations of self-energies, vertices and boxes that contribute all the different observables. We find that the logarithmic contribution due to the renormalization group running of the various couplings is numerically overwhelmed by single and double logarithmic terms of purely electroweak (Sudakov-type) origin, whose separate relative effects grow with energy, reaching the 10% size at about one TeV. We then propose a simple "effective" parametrization that aims at describing the various observables in the TeV region, and discuss its validity both beyond and below 1 TeV, in particular in the expected energy range of future linear electron-positron (LC) and muon-muon colliders., Comment: 23 pages and 9 figures; version submitted to Phys.Rev.D. e-mail: renard@lpm.univ-montp2.fr

We study in detail a supersymmetric Peccei-Quinn model, which has a DFSZ and a KSVZ version. The fields breaking the Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry correspond to flat directions (flaton fields) and have unsuppressed couplings when PQ symmetry is unbroken. The models have interesting particle physics phenomenology. The PQ scale is naturally generated through radiative corrections; also, in the DFSZ case the $\mu$ problem can be solved and neutrino masses can be generated. Cosmologically they lead to a short period of thermal inflation making the axion an excellent dark matter candidate if one of the flaton fields has a positive effective mass-squared at early times but with too low a density in the opposite case. A highly relativistic population of axions is produced by flaton decay during the subsequent reheating, whose density is constrained by nucleosynthesis. We evaluate all of the relevant reaction rates and evaluate the nucleosynthesis constraint. We find that the KSVZ model is practically ruled out, while the DFSZ model has a sizable allowed region of parameter space., Comment: 19 pages in Latex,no figures

The presence of a primordial magnetic field in the early universe affects the dynamic of the electroweak phase transition enhancing its strength. This effect may enlarge the window for electroweak baryogenesis in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model or even resurrect the electroweak baryogenesis scenario in the standard model. We compute the sphaleron energy in the background of the magnetic field and show that, due to the sphaleron dipole moment, the barrier between topologically inequivalent vacua is lowered. Therefore, the preservation of the baryon asymmetry calls for a much stronger phase transition than required in the absence of a magnetic field. We show that this effect overwhelms the gain in the phase transition strength, and conclude that magnetic fields do not help electroweak baryogenesis., Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures

We examine the possibility that SUSY particles are light, i.e. have a mass just beyond the final kinematical reach of LEP2. In this case, even if light particles are not directly detected, their virtual effects are enhanced by a ``close to threshold'' resonance in the s-channel. We find that this resonant effect is absent in the case of light sfermions, while it is enhanced in the case of light gauginos, since neutralinos and charginos add coherently in some regions of the allowed parameter space. We discuss this ``virtual-alliance'' in detail and try to examine the possibilities of its experimental verification., Comment: 8 pages and 8 figures; corrected numerical results

In perturbation theory the infrared structure of the electroweak interactions produces large corrections proportional to double logarithms log^2 (s/m^2), similar to Sudakov logarithms in QED, when the scale s is much larger than the typical mass m of the particles running in the loops. These energy growing corrections can be particularly relevant for the planned Next Linear Colliders. We study these effects in the Standard Model for the process e+ e^->f fbar and we compare them with similar corrections coming from SUSY loops., Comment: Title changed and minor changes in the text. Final version to be published on Physics Letters B. 8 pages, 3 figures

In general the onset of hybrid inflation requires an extremely homogeneous field configuration at the end of Planck era. The field \phi orthogonal to the inflaton \sigma must be zero with high accuracy over the range exceeding the initial horizon size \sim m_{Pl}^{-1} by about two orders of magnitude. We consider a supersymmetric model that permits the decay of the oscillating field \phi into light particles. We study the field evolution and find that the requirement of the extreme homogeneity can be relaxed. However, the field \phi must still be smaller than the inflaton by a factor of order 1 over a region far exceeding the initial horizon size., Comment: Latex, 9 pages, 3 figures

Non-decoupling effects related to a large $m_t$ affecting non-oblique radiative corrections in vertices ($Z\bar{b}b$) and boxes ($B$-$\bar{B}$ mixing and $\epsilon_K$) are very sensitive to the particular mechanism of spontaneous symmetry breaking. We analyze these corrections in the framework of a chiral electroweak standard model and find that there is only one operator in the effective lagrangian which modifies the longitudinal part of the $W^+$ boson without touching the oblique corrections. The inclusion of this operator affects the $Z\bar{b}b$ vertex, the $B$-$\bar{B}$ mixing and the CP-violating parameter $\epsilon_K$, generating interesting correlations among the hard $m_t^4 \log m_t^2$ corrections to these observables, for example, the maximum vertex $Z b\bar{b}$ correction allowed by low energy physics is about one percent., Comment: LaTex, 8 pages, 1 postscript figure included

In general electroweak models with weakly coupled (and otherwise arbitrary) Higgs sector there always exists in the spectrum a scalar state with mass controlled by the electroweak scale. A new and simple recipe to compute an analytical tree-level upper bound on the mass of this light scalar is given. We compare this new bound with similar ones existing in the literature and show how to extract extra information on heavier neutral scalars in the spectrum from the interplay of independent bounds. Production of these states at future colliders is addressed and the implications for the decoupling limit in which only one Higgs is expected to remain light are discussed., Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX

Effective thermal masses of bosonic particles in a plasma play an important role in many different phenomena. We compute them in general supersymmetric models at leading order. The origin of different corrections is explicitly shown for the formulas to be applicable when some particles decouple. The correct treatment of Boltzmann decoupling in the presence of trilinear couplings and mass mixing is also discussed. As a relevant example, we present results for the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model., Comment: 20 pages, LaTeX, plus one postscript figure

The top quark is well known for the nondecoupling effects it implies in $\rho$ and $R_b$. The recent experimental $R_b$ data exhibits a disagreement with the SM prediction at more than the $3 \sigma$ level. It is tempting to explore whether this might be due to nondecoupling New Physics effects, opposite to those of the top. We investigate this issue in the context of models with an extra family of right or left handed, singlet or doublet quarks. It is shown that, contrary to what one might naively expect, the nondecoupling properties of a mirror $t^\prime$ do not have an impact on $R_b$, due to a conspiracy of the mixing angles, imposed by the requirement that there be no $b$ - $b^\prime$ mixing. Our analysis agrees with an analysis performed independently, which includes this model as a particular case., Comment: Prompted by a wrong statement originally made about hep-ph/9602438, the abstract, final note and acknowledgments have been changed. We have corrected a few typos, added a footnote and included other references. The main body of the article stands and was not touched. 10 pages, latex, no figs

We investigate the effects of the new scalars in a two-Higgs-doublet model on the weak magnetic dipole moments of the fermions at the $Z$ peak. Proportionality of the Yukawa couplings to the fermion masses, and to $\tan{\beta}$, makes such effects more important for the third family, and potentially relevant. For the $\tau$ lepton, the new diagrams are suppressed by $v_\tau = 2 \sin^2 \theta_W - 1/2$, or by powers of $m_\tau/M_Z$, but may still be comparable to the SM electroweak contributions. In contrast, we find that the new contributions for the bottom quark may be much larger than the SM electroweak contributions. These new effects may even compete with the gluonic contribution, if the extra scalars are light and $\tan \beta$ is large. We also comment on the problem of the gauge dependence of the vertex, arising when the $Z$ is off mass shell. We compute the contributions from the new scalars to the magnetic dipole moments for top-quark production at the NLC, and for bottom and $ \tau $ production at LEP2. In the case of the top, we find that the SM electroweak and gluonic contributions to the $Z t {\bar t}$ vertex are comparable. The new contributions may be of the same order of magnitude as the standard-model ones, but not much larger., Comment: 17 pages, LaTex, 8 figures available upon request

Motivated by cosmological applications like electroweak baryogenesis, we develop a field theoretic approach to the computation of particle currents on a space-time dependent and CP-violating Higgs background. We consider the Standard Model model with two Higgs doublets and CP violation in the scalar sector, and compute both fermionic and Higgs currents by means of an expansion in the background fields. We discuss the gauge dependence of the results and the renormalization of the current operators, showing that in the limit of local equilibrium, no extra renormalization conditions are needed in order to specify the system completely., Comment: 21 pages, LaTeX file, uses epsf.sty. 4 figures available as a compressed .eps

We compute the particle currents induced on a bubble wall background at finite temperature in a model with CP violation in the Higgs sector. Using a field theory approach we show that fermionic currents arise at one loop, so that a suppression factor ${\cal O}(h_t \phi/\pi T)^2$ with respect to previous computations is found. The contributions to the Higgs currents are also derived and their relevancy for the spontaneous baryogenesis mechanism is discussed., Comment: 10 pages, LaTeX file, uses epsf.sty, 4 figures available as a compressed .eps file

We study the implications of a light stop for the spontaneous CP breaking at finite temperature in the Higgs sector of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with a gauge singlet. Assuming CP conservation at zero temperature, we show that the presence of a large mixing between the left- and the right-handed stops can trigger easily the spontaneous breaking of CP inside the bubbles nucleated during the electroweak phase transition. This allows to avoid the fine-tuning among the vacuum expectation values in the region of interest for the generation of the baryon asymmetry, namely the bubble walls, which has been recently analized., Comment: 11 pages, DFPD/TH/51/94, 2 figures available upon e-mail request

We study the spontaneous CP breaking at finite temperature in the Higgs sector in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with a gauge singlet. We consider the contribution of the standard model particles and that of stops, charginos, neutralinos, charged and neutral Higgs boson to the one-loop effective potential. Plasma effects for all bosons are also included. Assuming CP conservation at zero temperature, so that experimental constraints coming from, {\it e.g.}, the electric dipole moment of the neutron are avoided, and the electroweak phase transition to be of the first order and proceeding via bubble nucleation, we show that spontaneous CP breaking cannot occur inside the bubble mainly due to large effects coming from the Higgs sector. However, spontaneous CP breaking can be present in the region of interest for the generation of the baryon asymmetry, namely inside the bubble wall. The important presence of very tiny explicit CP violating phases is also commented., Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures available upon request, DFPD 94/TH/38 and SISSA 94/81-A preprints

The spontaneous baryogenesis mechanism by Cohen, Kaplan and Nelson is reconsidered taking into account the transport of particles inside the electroweak bubble walls. Using linear response theory, we calculate the modifications on the thermal averages of the charges of the system due to the presence of a space time dependent `charge potential' for a quantum number not orthogonal to baryon number. The local equilibrium configuration is discussed, showing that, as a consequence of non zero densities for conserved charges, the $B+L$ density is driven to non zero values by sphaleronic processes. Solving a rate equation for the baryon number generation, we obtain an expression for the final baryon asymmetry of the Universe containing the relevant parameters of the bubble wall, {\it i.e.} its velocity, its width, and the width of the region in which sphalerons are active. Compared to previous estimates in which transport effects were not taken into account, we find an enhancement of nearly three orders of magnitude in the baryon asymmetry. Finally, the role of QCD sphalerons in cooperation with transport effects is analyzed, showing that the net result depends crucially on the particle species which enter into the charge potential., Comment: 23 pages, 5 LaTeX figures, to be processed with feynman.tex, DFPD 94/TH/39

We introduce and define operatively in a model independent way a new ``heavy" b-vertexparameter, $\eta_b$, that can be derived from the measurement of a special polarization asymmetry for production of b-quarks on Z resonance. We show that the combination of the measurement of $\eta_b$ with that of a second and previously defined ``heavy" b-vertex parameter $\delta_{bV}$ can discriminate a number of models of New Physics that remain associated to different ``trajectories" in the plane of the variations of the two parameters. This is shown in particular for some popular SUSY and technicolor-type models. In general, this discrimination is possible if a measurement of \underline{both} parameters is performed., Comment: 22 pages, 6 figures available by air mail upon request, (e-mail renard@lpmsun2.lpm.univ-montp2.fr PM/94-04, UTS-DFT-94-02 .( revised version with corrected references)

We reconsider the possibility of spontaneous breaking of $R$ parity in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. By a renormalization group analysis we find the parameter space in which a sneutrino gets a vacuum expectation value, leading to the spontaneous breaking of the lepton number and to the appearance of a phenomenologically unacceptable massless Goldstone boson. We then analyze the effect of operators giving rise to a tiny amount of explicit violation of lepton number, which could emerge as remnants of physics at some superheavy (Planck or GUT) scale in the low energy effective theory. We show that the conspiracy between the spontaneous and the explicit breaking scales can provide a mass to the Goldstone boson larger than the ${\rm Z}^0$ boson mass, hence allowing for a non vanishing sneutrino vacuum expectation value without increasing the invisible width of the ${\rm Z}^0$., Comment: 10 pages, DFPD 93/TH/68, UTS-DFT-93-27, SISSA 93/168/A preprints, 2 figures available upon e-mail request

We investigate the effects of the spontaneous CP violation at finite temperature in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model on the baryogenesis at the weak scale. After a brief discussion of the case in which the electroweak phase transition is of the second order, we study in details the baryogenesis scenario when the transition proceeds via bubble nucleation. We show that the space-time dependent phase for the Higgs vacuum expectation values coming from the spontaneous CP violation can give rise to a efficient generation of baryon number inside the bubble walls if the superpotential parameters and the soft supersymmetry breaking ones are complex. However we find that in order to get the observed value for the baryon asymmetry of the universe the phases of such parameters can be as small as $10^{-5}$, giving rise to an electron dipole moment of the neutron well below the current experimental limit. Moreover a light Higgs pseudoscalar is needed, and an upper bound on its mass is obtained., Comment: 17 pages, LaTex, DFPD 93/TH/26 UTS-DFT 93/9 SISSA 93/50-A

We have evaluated the one loop correction to the bound on the lightest Higgs mass valid in the minimal, $ E_{6}$ based, supersymmetric $ \eta$ model. Under the assumption that the theory remains perturbative up to the $10^{16}$ GeV scale, we derive a conservative bound that decreases with the top mass for $M_t \leq 2 M_W$ and varies from $ \sim 160$ GeV to $\sim 145$ GeV when $90 \leq M_t \leq 200$ GeV., Comment: 10 pages

We show that in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model one--loop effects at finite temperature may lead to a spontaneous breaking of CP invariance in the scalar sector. Requiring that the breaking takes place at the critical temperature for the electroweak phase transition, we find that the parameters space is compatible with a mass of the Higgs pseudoscalar in agreement with the present experimental lower bounds. Possible implications for baryogenesis are discussed., Comment: 13 pages, DFPD 93/TH/06 and UTS/DFT/93/1

The neutral Higgs sector of the Minimal non Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model is considered. By effective potential and R.G.E. supported method; an upper bound of the lightest Higgs is analysed. From the request of perturbativity of the coupling in the superpotential, adding the leading stop top contributions, the absolute bound of $\sim 130$ GeV for $90 GeV < m_t< 180 GeV$ and $M_{\tilde{t}} \simeq 1000 $ GeV is derived. The interesting dependence on $m_t$ for $\tan{\beta} \to 1$ is discussed .