Some simple criteria for gauged R parity.

We catalog some simple conditions which are sufficient to guarantee that R-parity survives as an unbroken gauged discrete subgroup of the continuous gauge symmetry in certain supersymmetric extensions of the standard model. †Address after Sept. 1, 1992: Dept. of Physics, Northeastern University, Boston MA 02115 Low energy N = 1 supersymmetry has been proposed as a cure for the fine-tuning problem associated with the Higgs scalar boson[1]. However, in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model, proton decay might be expected to occur at an unacceptable rate due to the virtual exchange of the superpartners of the standard model states[2,3]. To see this, we can write all of the renormalizable and gauge-invariant terms which might occur in the superpotential: