Particle physics and cosmology in supersymmetric models

The Standard Model (SM) of particle physics provides an excellent description of the elementary particle interactions observed in particle collider experiments, but the model does less well when it is applied to cosmology. Recent measurements of the Universe over very large distances indicate the existence of non-luminous dark matter and an excess of baryons over anti-baryons. The SM is unable to account for either of these results, implying that an extension of the SM description is needed. One such extension is supersymmetry. Within the minimal supersymmetric version of the SM, the MSSM, the lightest superpartner particle can make up the dark matter, and the baryon asymmetry can be generated by the mechanism of electroweak baryogenesis (EWBG). In this work, we examine these issues together in order to find out whether the MSSM can account for both of them simultaneously. We find that the MSSM can explain both the baryon asymmetry and the dark matter, but only over a very constrained region of the model parameter space. The strongest constraints on this scenario come from the lower bound on the Higgs boson mass, and the upper bound on the electric dipole moment of the electron. Moreover, upcoming experiments will probe the remaining allowed parameter space in the near future. Some of these constraints may be relaxed by going beyond the MSSM. With this in mind, we also investigate the nMSSM, a minimal singlet extension of the MSSM. We find that this model can also explain both the dark matter and the baryon asymmetry.