R-parity violating supersymmetry

The possible appearance of R-parity violating couplings, and hence implicitly the question of lepton and baryon number conservation, has been emphasised since the early development of supersymmetric theories. The rich phenomenology implied by R-parity violation has now gained full attention in the search for supersymmetry. In this review, theoretical and phenomenological implications of R-parity violation in supersymmetric theories are discussed, in relation with particle and astroparticle physics. Fundamental aspects include the relation with continuous and discrete symmetries, up to more recent developments on the Abelian family symmetries and hierarchy of R-parity violating couplings. The question of the generation of the standard model neutrino masses and mixings is presented. The possible contributions of R-parity violating Yukawa couplings in processes involving virtual supersymmetric particles and the resulting constraints are reviewed. Finally, a survey of the direct production of supersymmetric particles and their decays through R-parity violating couplings for ee, ep and pp colliding beams is presented, together with a review of the existing constraints and future prospects at colliders.