Super Symmetry (SUSY) Particles
Super or Twin Symmetry states that for every particle known in the grand dance of particles in the cosmos there is a corresponding ‘dark or shadow’ twin-partner with a higher mass. Its nomenclature simply adds an “s” to the known particles. So quarks would have corresponding squarks.
This theory has the added advantage of providing quite ideal candidates for dark matter, a heavier twin-partner who does not interact with light.
Since all particles are classed as either fermions or bosons, a particle belonging to one class has a twin-partner in the other class, thereby “balancing the books” and making Nature more symmetric. Thus, the twin of an electron (a fermion) is called a selectron (a boson).
These super symmetric particles, have the same charge but opposite spin to the particles we are familiar with, such as photons and electrons.
Whereas super symmetry in particle physics is just a hypothesis waiting to be confirmed or disproved, there are occurrences of super symmetry in nuclear physics which seem to have stronger evidences.
In elementary particle physics, super symmetry theory interchanges particles of completely dissimilar types: fermions which make up the material world, and bosons which generate the forces of nature.
Two fermions will never occupy the same quantum state. Bosons, under the right conditions, form regimented armies of clones, such as the photons in a laser beam. Yet somehow in the mirror of super symmetry, individualistic fermions look magically like sociable bosons, and v.v.
Nuclear physicists predicted the existence of a different form of super symmetry in certain atomic nuclei. Nuclei with even numbers of protons + neutrons versus those with odd numbers of protons + neutrons.
A composite particle containing an odd # of fermions is itself a fermion, but an even # of fermions produces a boson.
Theorists must use many tools to understand all facets of the complicated physics of nuclei. The new results adds SUSY to the toolkit and it shows that super symmetry is not just a mathematical curiosity but exists in the world.
