Cari Cesarotti

One, because it introduced an extrasymmetry, which again, we all love. And if there's a way for a symmetry to exist, oh boy, do we want it to exist. Right.

One, because it introduced an extrasymmetry, which again, we all love. And if there's a way for a symmetry to exist, oh boy, do we want it to exist. Right.

And the problem that are really famously addressed is exactly this hierarchy problem, is that if you want to understand why you have a very, very big number as a prediction, but you see a very, very small number experimentally measured, the easiest answer is there's a symmetry that cancels something, right? A symmetry is a fancy way of just saying that there's basically a copy of something.

And the problem that are really famously addressed is exactly this hierarchy problem, is that if you want to understand why you have a very, very big number as a prediction, but you see a very, very small number experimentally measured, the easiest answer is there's a symmetry that cancels something, right? A symmetry is a fancy way of just saying that there's basically a copy of something.

So the symmetry is a way of explaining why two big numbers should almost exactly cancel. So supersymmetry, as we could have seen it before the Large Hadron Collider turned on, would have been an amazing way of explaining why the Higgs boson has a mass of around 100 GeV instead of 10 to the 18 GeV.

So the symmetry is a way of explaining why two big numbers should almost exactly cancel. So supersymmetry, as we could have seen it before the Large Hadron Collider turned on, would have been an amazing way of explaining why the Higgs boson has a mass of around 100 GeV instead of 10 to the 18 GeV.

So that was kind of the most exciting promise is that there was a fundamental reason why this particle was so light. And there was expectation of all these new particles that we would hope to see. And it was going to be an amazing time. And people were even worried that we couldn't find the Higgs boson because there'd be too many of these other super partners.

So that was kind of the most exciting promise is that there was a fundamental reason why this particle was so light. And there was expectation of all these new particles that we would hope to see. And it was going to be an amazing time. And people were even worried that we couldn't find the Higgs boson because there'd be too many of these other super partners.

Unfortunately, we turned on the LHC and we did not see the superpartners. Supersymmetry as theorized in its most beautiful pure form of having the maximal symmetry is not something that's probably realizable at this point. However, there are versions of it in which you can introduce new particles or new interactions that take you away from that perfectly symmetric case and break the symmetry.

Unfortunately, we turned on the LHC and we did not see the superpartners. Supersymmetry as theorized in its most beautiful pure form of having the maximal symmetry is not something that's probably realizable at this point. However, there are versions of it in which you can introduce new particles or new interactions that take you away from that perfectly symmetric case and break the symmetry.

So, you know, of course these theories still exist and it's still worth looking for, assuming that we have the tools to do so. But at some point you're not solving the fundamental question that you asked, or you have to introduce something that basically replaces the fundamental question that you were asking. So it becomes a bit of a patchwork solution rather than a global solution.

So, you know, of course these theories still exist and it's still worth looking for, assuming that we have the tools to do so. But at some point you're not solving the fundamental question that you asked, or you have to introduce something that basically replaces the fundamental question that you were asking. So it becomes a bit of a patchwork solution rather than a global solution.

And that's something much less attractive.

And that's something much less attractive.

Yeah, I mean, it is definitely something that really is a marker of a very healthy theory in physics, I think, is when it can sort of address many problems at once versus just, you know, picking one problem and trying to, like I said, patchwork it.

Yeah, I mean, it is definitely something that really is a marker of a very healthy theory in physics, I think, is when it can sort of address many problems at once versus just, you know, picking one problem and trying to, like I said, patchwork it.

So, yeah, it was it was a really beautiful theory that had a lot of reasons to be motivated, could address a lot of questions that we had about the standard model. And, yeah, the fact that we didn't see it, I think, has put us into a little bit of a crisis in terms of the theory world in the particle physics community.

So, yeah, it was it was a really beautiful theory that had a lot of reasons to be motivated, could address a lot of questions that we had about the standard model. And, yeah, the fact that we didn't see it, I think, has put us into a little bit of a crisis in terms of the theory world in the particle physics community.

We could have had it all.

We could have had it all.