supersymmetry
English
Etymology
From super- + symmetry. In the modern physics sense, coined by Pakistani physicist Abdus Salam and American physicist John Strathdee in 1974 as super-symmetry, in a paper in Physics Letters B as a simplification of super-gauge symmetry used by Julius Wess and Bruno Zumino.
Noun
supersymmetry (usually uncountable, plural supersymmetries)
- (physics) A theory that attempts to unify the fundamental physical forces and which proposes a physical symmetry between bosons and fermions.
- 1974, A Salam, “Super-symmetry and non-Abelian gauges”, in Physics Letters B:
- We suggest therefore that the expression "super-symmetry" might be more appropriate for the global concept and reserve the word "gauge" for local symmetries.
- 2013 November 22, Alok Jha, “Stephen Hawking: physics would be 'more interesting' if Higgs boson hadn't been found”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 24, page 32:
- Supersymmetry is the concept that known particles – such as electrons, quarks and photons – have a heavier and as-yet-undetected "superpartner".
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Synonyms
- SUSY (abbreviation)
Translations
theory that attempts to unify the fundamental physical forces
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