Electroweak Baryogenesis and Higgs Physics

Electroweak Baryogenesis is a particularly attractive theoretical scenario, since it relies on physics which can be tested at present high energy collider facilities. Within the Standard Model, it has been shown that the requirement of preserving the baryon number generated at the weak scale leads to strong bounds on the Higgs mass, which are already inconsistent with the present experimental limits. In the Minimal Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model we demonstrate that light stop effects can render the electroweak phase transition sufficiently strongly first order, opening the possibility of electroweak baryogenesis for values of the Higgs mass at the LEP2 reach. The generation of the observed baryon asymmetry also requires small chargino masses and new CP-violating phases associated with the stop and Higgsino mass parameters. We discuss the direct experimental tests of this scenario and other relevant phenomenological issues related to it.