Re: supersymmetric partners

Posted by DickT on September 08, 2003 at 09:21:34:

In Reply to: supersymmetric partners posted by PeterG on September 08, 2003 at 04:27:09:

Peter,

No this pair of interactions is not an example of supersymmetry. All the particles involved are of the ordinary kind, not supersymmetric partners.

The sumplest thing about supersymmetry to explain is that in it, every existing boson has a partnered fermion, and vice versa. The photon is a boson, so its hypothetical partner would be a fermion, which has been named the photino. The rule is for the fermion partner of a boson, take all or part of the boson name and add "-ino". Thus gluons have gluinos and the weak force W bosons have the amusing Winos.

To get names for the bosonic superpartners of fermions, add an initial "S-" to all or part of the fermion name. The oartner of an electron would be a selectron, and we also have squarks, etc.

So if the name ends in -ino you know it's a fermion, and hence the superpartner of a boson. If the name starts with s, you know it's a boson, and superpartner of a fermion. All the superpartners are hypothesized to have large masses, to account for the fact that they haven't been seen in the accelerator experiments. But it is hoped that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, when it is finished, will be able to see the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP).

Why all these things happen, and what advantages supersymmetry has for theoretical physics, is too long for a post. I recommend you read the book Supersymmetry by Gordaon Kane. It is non technical but clear and well written.

Regards,
Dick

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• Re: supersymmetric partners (Gordon Kane?) -- lanecove 9/08/03 (1)
  • Re: supersymmetric partners (Gordon Kane?) -- DickT 9/08/03 (0)

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