gravitinon.
/ˌɡravᵻˈtiːnəʊ/, U.S. /ˌɡrævəˈtinoʊ/ Particle Physics.
1. A hypothetical particle of zero rest mass and negative energy, postulated in a theory of the continuous creation of matter. Now historical.
ΚΠ
1955 F. A. E. Pirani in Proc. Royal Soc. A. 228 457 The new entities, which will be called gravitinos, have just the properties of Synge's attractive impulses, and the creation event satisfies Synge's hypothesis of the conservation of 4-momentum in collisions.
1965 J. D. North Meas. of Universe 417 The concept of ‘zero-point stress’ has been developed..by F. A. E. Pirani who has ingeniously suggested that it may be explained in terms of the contribution of ‘gravitinos’ to the energy-momentum tensor.
1996 H. Kragh Cosmology & Controv. (1999) v. 211 On the basis of the gravitino hypothesis, Pirani managed to build up a cosmological theory largely identical with the steady-state theory.
2. A hypothetical particle which is the supersymmetric counterpart of a graviton, with spin 3/ 2 instead of 2.Whether or not the gravitino has mass depends on whether (in the theories) supersymmetry is unbroken (the gravitino has no mass) or broken (it does have mass).
ΘΚΠ
the world > matter > physics > atomic physics > particle physics > [noun] > hypothetical particle > propagating gravitational force > supersymmetric counterpart of
gravitino1977
gaugino1982
1977 Sci. Amer. (U.K. ed.) July 59/3 The theory that is of most immediate interest is one postulating a symmetry between gravitons with a spin of 2 and hypothetical fermions with a spin of 3/2. This theory has been given the name ‘supergravity’; the spin-3/2 particles might be called ‘gravitinos’.
1977 I. Bars & S. W. MacDowell in Physics Lett. B 7 Nov. 111/1 The quantum version of this theory will have no elementary spin-2 quanta or gravitons. Instead, it will have fermionic quanta which we call gravitinos.
1982 Nature 29 July 421/1 Supersymmetry forces us, at long last, to take quantum gravity into account, if only in adding the gravitino to our elementary particles zoo.
2011 D. S. Gorbunov & V. A. Rubakov Introd. Theory Early Universe ix. 196 In theories of this sort gravitino is stable and may be a dark matter candidate.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2013; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1955