Probing supersymmetry with parity-violating electron scattering

Abstract

We compute the one-loop supersymmetric (SUSY) contributions to the weak charges of the electron (QWe), proton (QWp), and cesium nucleus (QWCs) in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). Such contributions can generate several percent corrections to the corresponding standard model values. The magnitudes of the SUSY loop corrections to QWe and QWp are correlated over nearly all of the MSSM parameter space and result in an increase in the magnitudes of these weak charges. In contrast, the effects on QWCs are considerably smaller and are equally likely to increase or decrease its magnitude. Allowing for R-parity violation can lead to opposite sign relative shifts in QWe and QWp, normalized to the corresponding standard model values. A comparison of QWp and QWe measurements could help distinguish between different SUSY scenarios.