LEP Data and the Stability of the Potential Confront the mSUGRA Model

Abstract

The requirement that the supersymmetric scalar potential be stable in the minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) model imposes an upper bound on the universal gaugino mass $m_{1/2}$ as function of the common scalar mass $m_0$. Combining this with the experimental lower bound on $m_{1/2}$ from LEP data, we find a new lower bound on $m_0$, stronger than the one that comes from experimental data alone. If the corresponding upper and lower limits on the superparticle masses, presented in this letter, are found to be violated at Tevatron Run II or at the LHC, it would imply that we are living on a false vacuum. Special attention has been paid in estimating the uncertainties in these predictions due to the choice of the renormalization scale. The implications of our limits for the constraints obtained by indirect methods(SUSY dark matter, g - 2 of the muon, $ b \to s γ$....) are briefly discussed.

18 pages, 5 figures; revised version, to be published in Phys. Lett. B