Supersymmetry Studies: University of Colorado-Boulder


To date, experiments in particle physics have yielded a model of the elementary particles (quarks and leptons) and forces ( electro-magnetic, weak, and strong) of matter- the Standard Model. To date, the force of gravity has not been integrated with this Standard Model, becoming one of the future aims of our investigations. While the SM does much to explain the fundamental nature of matter, it is still incomplete because it still cannot fully explain the nature of the world. As we enter the next century, physicists will seek to piece together many different theories of particle physics into a single unified theory which will explain the true nature of the world. One attempt at such a unification has come through the development of the theory of strings, which incorporates all forces, including gravity, in a unifying structure. One of the major predictions of strings, which might be tested at accessible energies, is the existence of supersymmetry. Supersymmetry helps to avoid the quadratic divergence of the Higgs mass renormalization. Another way to state this is to say that it avoids the need to introduce renormalization counter terms which require an accuracy of many significant figures so that the calculated mass agrees with the expected Higgs mass of at most 250 GeV as predicted by the SLD and LEP experiments. This is known as the ``fine tuning problem''. Supersymmetry, if the masses are in the region of approx. 0.5 to 1.0 TeV, helps dramatically to achieve the unification of the coupling constants at the Grand Unification scale. Supersymmetry states that every elementary particle has a supersymmetric partner with equal mass but a spin differing by 1/2 unit. The only problem is that supersymmetry cannot be observed at the energies at which current particle colliders operate. So it is necessary to build a new collider capable of reaching energies higher than anything we've ever seen before. The LHC is such a machine. Nevertheless, it is likely that the LHC may not be able to elucidate the nature of the observations. An e+e- Linear Collider would be able to complement the LHC obervations and provide the way by which Supersymmetry is fully analyzed.


The Supersymmetry Study Group at the University of Colorado-Boulder Past and Present


Toshinori Abe, Michelle Backus, James Barron, Brian Camley, Shirley Choi, Nick Danielson, Derek DeSantis, Mihai Dima, Bradford Dobos, Tyler Dorland, Keith Drake, Michael Duckwitz, Joshua Dunn, Tera Dunn, Joshua Elliott, Sal Fahey, Frank Gaede, Christopher Geraci, Jack Gill, Elizabeth Goodman, Jeremiah Goodson, James Gray, Jason Gray, Maria Parson Gulda, Benjamin Haber, Luke Hamilton, Andrew Hahn, Stephen Hill, Anthony Johnson, Brian Julsen, Eric Jurgenson, Rory Kelly, Lyron Kopinsky, Nathan Koral, Eric Kuhn, Ning Lyan, Irene Liu, Alfonso Martinez, Robert Midlil, Kyle Miller, Sarah Moll, Martin Nagel, Uriel Nauenberg, Bonna Newman, Gleb Oleinik, Archie Paulson, Matthew Phillips, Aaron Preston, Joe Proulx, Dan Pyziak, William Ruddick, Elliot Smith, Jesse Smock, David Staszak, Paul Steinbrecher, Matthew Stolte, Chris Takeuchi, Jacob Taylor, Aaron Tremback, Tara Turner, Jonathan Varkowitzky, Christopher Veeneman, David Wagner, Deborah Weber, Brook Williams, Jessica Wolfe, Francis Kiwon Yi, Jiaxin Yu

Our group at the University of Colorado-Boulder is interested in investigating the opportunities and capabilities of a high energy (500 GeV or higher) electron-positron collider. We have been carrying out a simulation study of the production and subsequent decay of supersymmetric particles produced in a linear collider to determine how to uncover the signal and measure the masses of these particles.

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