Some Questions of Flavor in Supersymmetry

Abstract

We consider certain naturalness questions in supersymmetric theories. Various suggestions which give rise to squark degeneracies are reviewed. A stringy scenario, discussed by Kaplunovsky and Louis, is the only one which leads to complete degeneracy of squarks and sleptons at the high scale. Alternatives include the possible existence of a gauged non-Abelian horizontal symmetry, broken at some scale, and theories in which the ``messengers" of supersymmetry breaking are gauge interactions. A model of the latter type is described, in which supersymmetry is {\it dynamically} broken at TeV energies. Models of this type can solve many of the naturalness problems of supersymmetric theories, and predict a rich phenomenology at SSC energies.