Supersymmetry, explained visually

Physicists identify symmetries to refine understanding of nature’s fundamental structure. From geometric shapes to universal laws, symmetry reveals what remains unchanged under transformation.

The Standard Model classifies all known elementary particles into two fundamental families discovered through decades of experimental and theoretical physics research.

Theoretical physicists postulate supersymmetry as the most promising extension to the Standard Model, proposing each known particle has an undetected superpartner in the opposite category.

Theoretical physicists pursuing a theory of everything seek to unify electromagnetism, weak interaction, and strong interaction into a single framework that was merged at the Big Bang.

Henri Poincare and others formulated these fundamental symmetries of special relativity, describing how spacetime itself remains invariant under specific transformations.

Quantum field theorists describe particles as disturbances within mathematical fluids called quantum fields, with each particle type having its own field permeating spacetime.

Mathematicians and physicists use Grassmann numbers as abstract tools to describe fermions. Despite their name, these aren’t ordinary numbers but mathematical objects with unusual multiplication properties.

Wolfgang Pauli discovered this fundamental principle governing fermion behavior, explaining why matter has structure and solidity rather than collapsing into a single point.

In 1967, physicists Coleman and Mandula proved mathematically that the universe cannot obey any symmetry types beyond those already known. In 1971, Golfand and Lichtman discovered a critical loophole.