Some Questions of Flavor in Supersymmetry ⋆

We consider certain naturalness questions in supersymmetric theories. Various suggestions which give rise to squark degeneracies are reviewed. A stringy scenario, discussed by Kaplunovsky and Louis, is the only one which leads to complete degeneracy of squarks and sleptons at the high scale. Alternatives include the possible existence of a gauged non-Abelian horizontal symmetry, broken at some scale, and theories in which the “messengers” of supersymmetry breaking are gauge interactions. A model of the latter type is described, in which supersymmetry is dynamically broken at TeV energies. Models of this type can solve many of the naturalness problems of supersymmetric theories, and predict a rich phenomenology at SSC energies. ⋆ Invited Talk Presented at Conference SUSY93, Northeastern University, March 1993 † Work supported in part by the U.S. Department of Energy.