Electroweak baryogenesis and low energy supersymmetry

Electroweak baryogenesis is an interesting theoretical scenario, which demands physics beyond the Standard Model at energy scales of the order of the weak boson masses. It has been recently emphasized that, in the presence of light stops, the electroweak phase transition can be strongly first order, opening the window for electroweak baryogenesis in the MSSM. For the realization of this scenario, the Higgs boson must be light, at the reach of the LEP2 collider. In this article, we compute the baryon asymmetry assuming the presence of non-trivial CP-violating phases in the parameters associated with the left-right stop mixing term and the Higgsino mass mu. We conclude that a phase \sin phi(mu)\ > 0.01 and Higgsino and gaugino mass parameters \mu\ similar or equal to M-2, and of the order of the electroweak scale, are necessary in order to generate the observed baryon asymmetry. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. PACS: 11.10.Wx; 11.30.Pb; 12.60.Jv.