CP Violation and the Scale of Supersymmetry Breaking

Abstract

Supersymmetric models with a high supersymmetry breaking scale give, in general, large contributions to epsilon_K and/or to various electric dipole moments, even when contributions to CP conserving, flavor changing processes are sufficiently suppressed. Some examples are models of dilaton dominance, alignment, non-Abelian flavor symmetries, heavy first two generation sfermions, anomaly mediation and gaugino mediation. There is then strong motivation for `approximate CP', that is a situation where all CP violating phases are small. In contrast, in supersymmetric models with a low breaking scale it is quite plausible that the CKM matrix is the only source of flavor and CP violation. Gauge mediation provides a concrete example. Approximate CP is then unacceptable. Upcoming measurements of the CP asymmetry in B to \psi K_S might exclude or support the idea of approximate CP and consequently probe the scale of supersymmetry breaking.