Possible Implications of a Light Gluino

Abstract

Light gluinos have been suggested in order to reconcile $α_s$ determinations from low energy deep inelastic experiments with those inferred from LEP measurements. {}From this hypothesis then one expects, in unified N=1 supergravity models, that also the "photino" will be light. We show that this possibility is not in conflict with recent LEP measurements and also that cosmology does not necessarily rule it out in any convincing way. Moreover it leads to $upper$ limits on the masses of the other supersymmetric fermions, for example, the lightest chargino should be lighter than about 75 GeV}