Effects of supersymmetric grand unification scale physics on $\Gamma \left(b\to s\gamma \right)$

Abstract

Although calculations of the $b\to s\gamma$ rate in supersymmetric grand unified models have always either ignored the gluino mediated contribution or found it to be negligible, we show that taking universal supersymmetry breaking masses at the Planck scale, rather than at the gauge unification scale as is customary, leads to the gluino contribution being more significant and in fact sometimes even larger than the chargino mediated contributions when $\mu >0$ and $\tan \beta$ is of order 1. The impact is greatest felt when the gluinos are relatively light. Taking the universal boundary condition at the Planck scale also has an effect on the chargino contribution by increasing the effect of the wino and higgsino-wino mediated decays. The neutralino mediated contribution is found to be enhanced, but nevertheless it remains relatively insignificant.

Comments: Title changed, final version as accepted for PRD, 12 pages, 6 Figures (Figs.2-6 included, uuencoded, epsf.tex)