Why is it interesting?

Layman

Student

[Supersymmetry means] extending the Poincare algebra] of infinitesimal space-time symmetries by adding some new operators. The new, extended algebra was called a supersymmetry algebra. The new operators were in some sense square roots of translations: one could multiply two of them and get the momentum or energy operator that gives infinitesimal translations in space or time. Doing this required using the Clifford algebra that Dirac had rediscovered for his Dirac equation. If one tries to build these new operators in a quantum field theory, they have the peculiar feature that they relate bosons and fermions. […] The new operators that extend the Poincare' algebra transform fermions into bosons and vice versa, thus forcing a certain relation between the bosons and fermions of a quantum field theory with this new kind of symmetry. This gets around the Coleman-Mandula theorem […] The Coleman-Mandula theorem had implicitly assumed that the symmetry was taking bosons to bosons and fermions to fermions, not mixing the two the way supersymmetry does.

Not Even Wrong by P. Woit p. 108

Standard Textbooks:

• A Supersymmetry Primer by Stephen P. Martin
• Theory and phenomenology of sparticles by Manuel Drees et. al.

Researcher

Examples

Example1

Example2:

FAQ

History