The effect of the sparticle mass spectrum on the conversion of B−L to B

Abstract

In the context of many leptogenesis and baryogenesis scenarios, B−L (baryon minus the lepton number) is converted into B (baryon number) by non-perturbative B+L violating operators in the SU(2)_L sector. We correct a common misconversion of B−L to B in the literature in the context of supersymmetry. More specifically, kinematic effects associated with the sparticle masses can be generically important (typically a factor of 2/3 correction in mSUGRA scenarios), and in some cases, it may even flip the sign between B−L and B. We give explicit formulae for converting B−L to B for temperatures approaching the electroweak phase transition temperature from above. Enhancements of B are also possible, leading to a mild relaxation of the reheating temperature bounds coming from gravitino constraints.