supersymmetryn.
/suːpəˈsɪmᵻtri/, /sjuːpəˈsɪmᵻtri/, U.S. /ˌsupərˈsɪmətri/ Symmetry of a more general type or of a higher order; (Physics) a very general type of mathematical symmetry proposed as relating fermions and bosons.One of the implications of supersymmetry in Physics is that many known subatomic particles should have corresponding superpartners with a spin differing by ½. The use of the word in this context originated with Salam and Strathdee (quot. 1974).
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the world > matter > physics > quantum theory > quantum mechanics > symmetry, conserved properly > [noun] > relating fermions and bosons
supersymmetry1941
1941 Amer. Jrnl. Psychiatry 98 125/1 Symmetry is a constructive factor in any good design. But in schizophrenia this principle..stands out in contrast to the meagerness or even emptiness of the design as a whole. It is a formalistic, external symmetry. One can speak of this as ‘super-symmetry’.
1958 Progr. Theoret. Physics 19 639 If there is the super symmetry between Λ and Σ when gK2/ℏc = e2/ℏc = 0, Λ and Σ must have the same intrinsic parity.
1961 S. L. Glashow & M. Gell-Mann in Ann. Physics 15 297 One of them might play a role in the physics of the strong interactions if there is an underlying super-symmetry, transcending charge independence, that is badly broken.
1966 Progr. Theoret. Biol. 13 364 Higher molecular complexity in chromosomes may be produced by..compounding several primary information molecules..into a single super-complex, leading to super-symmetry.
1966 Ann. Physics 38 554 The spectrum happens to coincide with that contained in the (6*, 6)–(6, 6*) representation of the recently proposed U6 × U6 supersymmetry.
1974 A. Salam & J. Strathdee in Physics Lett. B. 51 353/1 These authors [sc. J. Weiss and B. Zumino, 1974]..designate this Fermi-Bose symmetry by the expression ‘super-gauge’. Since the word ‘gauge’ has come to be more commonly associated with ‘gauges of the second kind’ or local symmetries, it is confusing to use super-gauge to describe what is indeed a global symmetry of fermions and bosons. We suggest therefore that the expression ‘super-symmetry’ might be more appropriate.
1975 S. Ferrara & B. Zumino in Nucl. Physics B. 87 207 Supersymmetry transformations form an extended Lie algebra.
1977 Physics Today Apr. 49/3 As far as I know, the only natural way to keep a scalar boson massless is to have a ‘supersymmetry’,..which puts scalar fields in the same multiplet as massless fermion fields.
2001 N.Y. Mag. 14 May 93/1 Paintings whose images draw on the ‘supersymmetry’ physics theory that every particle of matter possesses a ‘shadow’ particle.
2005 L. Randall Warped Passages xvii. 347 The idea was to communicate supersymmetry breaking not through the graviton, but instead through gauginos, the supersymmetric partners of the gauge bosons.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, June 2012; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1941