Flavour Physics and Grand Unification

Abstract

In spite of the enormous success of the Standard Model (SM), we have strong reasons to expect the presence of new physics beyond the SM at higher energies. The idea of the Grand Unification of all the known interactions in nature is perhaps the main reason behind these expectations. Low-energy Supersymmetry is closely linked with grand unification as a solution of the hierarchy problem associated with the ratio M_GUT / M_Z. In these lectures we will provide a general overview of Grand Unification and Supersymmetry with special emphasis on their phenomenological consequences at low energies. We will analyse the flavour and CP problems of Supersymmetry and try to identify in these associated low-energy observables possible indications of the existence of a Grand Unified theory at high energies.