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LHC Searches for Supersymmetry

After two years of a major overhaul of the Large Hadron Collider, scientists are hoping to directly detect some of the results which the Standard Model predicts. After the Nobel Prize winning discovery of the Higgs Boson in 2012, the particle which gives others their mass, scientists are back and ready to check off evidence of dark matter, supersymmetry and other dimensions, among other theoretical predictions. This is the first of a series of posts which will highlights some of these exciting new realms of particle physics.

The Standard Model is currently our best idea of the subatomic world: it tells us that matter is made up of a group of particles called fermions, classified into quarks and leptons—the “building blocks of matter”. It also says that that for each of the four fundamental forces in the universe, the strong, weak, electromagnetic and gravitational forces, there are “force carrier” particles, otherwise known as bosons.

Supersymmetry is the idea that could connect fermions and bosons. Fermions have half of a unit of spin, like ½, 3/2, etc. whereas bosons have an integer spin, like 0, 1, 2, etc. Supersymmetry predicts that each of the particles in the Standard Model has a partner with spin that differs by a half which is nothing short of amazing considering these particles have incredibly opposite personalities. Fermions are dreadfully independent since each must be in their own “state” and bosons love interacting with other bosons in the same “state”.

As the Large Hadron Collider begins its second run, scientists know that finding these missing partner particles might just be the greatest love story science has ever seen and just the start of confirming supersymmetry.

–KSA

More information: 1, 2

Image Source: CERN

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