Sneutrino Leptogenesis at the Electroweak Scale

Abstract

We propose an alternative mechanism for leptogenesis at the electroweak scale, through the decays of a left-handed sneutrino. This scenario may be realized in supersymmetric models with non-zero Majorana masses for the neutrino superfield that lead to mixing and mass splitting between the left-handed sneutrino and the corresponding antisneutrino. Soft supersymmetry breaking provides new sources of CP violation in sneutrino-antisneutrino mixing that can generate a lepton asymmetry in decays of the left-handed sneutrino. We show how the three Sakharov conditions for generating the observed baryon asymmetry of the Universe can be fulfilled in this restrictive framework.

13 pages, 2 figures