Can ε'/εbe supersymmetric?

Abstract

The possible supersymmetric contribution to ε'/εhas been generally regarded small in the literature. We point out, however, that this is a result based on specific assumptions, such as universal scalar mass, and in general needs not to be true. Based on a general situation, (1) hierarchical quark Yukawa matrices protected by flavor symmetry, (2) generic dependence of Yukawa matrices on Polonyi/moduli fields as expected in many supergravity/superstring theories, (3) Cabibbo rotation originating from the down-sector, and (4) phases of order unity, we find the typical supersymmetric contribution to ε'/εto be order 3x10^-3 for m_{\tilde{q}} = 500 GeV. It is even possible that the supersymmetric contribution dominates in the reported KTeV value ε'/ε= (28 \pm 4.1)x10^-4. If so, the neutron electric dipole moment is likely to be within the reach of the currently planned experiments.

4 pages. Typos, references, and a few numerical errors corrected. Final version accepted by PRL