SUSY 2024 – Theory meets Experiment
- From June 10th to 14th, the Institute for Theoretical Physics IFT (UAM/CSIC) will host SUSY 2024, the 31st International Conference on Supersymmetry and Unification of Fundamental Interactions.
- Supersymmetry, a theory that tries to solve some of the Standard Model of particles problems, will be the main focus. Among other topics, an important topic will be dark matter, invisible and only detectable through its notable gravitational effect despite it being 85% of the matter in the universe, as well as the Higgs particle, which was discovered in 2012.
- 200 international researchers from both theoretical and experimental background will deepen the relationship between both these scientific groups in the most important theories beyond the Standard Model.
The Institute of Theoretical Physics IFT/UAM/CSIC is hosting 200 researchers of all levels and from all over the world for the SUSY 2024 – Theory meets Experiment, from June 10th to June 14th. Twenty invited speakers and nearly thirty parallel sessions will display the state-of-the-art of what supersymmetry studies and their implications have discovered so far.
This year is the 31st edition of the SUSY conferences, to discuss the most recent research on supersymmetry theories and others beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. This 5-days conference has been preceded by the usual pre-SUSY School 2024, which consisted in a series of classes oriented to an international audience of post-degree student and postdoc researchers.
The SUSY 2024, hosted by IFT, foresee an opening plenary held by professor S.F. King and his talk, “SUSY: Where are we”. Then, consistently with the beginning, the event will be concluded by professor C. Wagner’s talk “What comes beyond the Standard Model?”.
SUSY
Supersymmetry, or SUSY, is a particle physics theory that goes beyond the Standard Model, which itself describes the most fundamental forces and particles of the universe. The aim is to highlight the implications in topics such as particle physics, dark matter, cosmology and Higgs physics, either from theoretical and experimental perspectives. All the sessions will be held in English, to accomplish the expected international audience.
Lessons on supersymmetry
The name SUSY that is reflected on both events comes from supersymmetry, a particle physics theory. The Standard Model, on which it is based on, describes 3 of the 4 fundamental forces of the universe: electromagnetic, strong and weak, but not gravitational. It also defines the most fundamental particles, such as quarks, electrons and neutrinos, among others.
However, supersymmetry, among other theories that will be discussed in these events, takes this model further, to try and solve many of the problems that the Standard Model on its own cannot answer. The particles in this model can be characterized by how they spin. Some particles have a spin of 0 or 1, which is known as an integer spin. Others have spin 1/2 or 3/2, which is called half-integer spin. The theoretical framework of SUSY suggests that for every particle with half-integer spin, there is another partner, “symmetrical”, particle with integer spin and vice versa.
One of the consequences of this theory has to do with the famous Higgs boson. The Higgs mechanism describes the existence of this particle, responsible for others having the mass they have, but its own was a mystery. The theory before SUSY predicted a mass for this particle that should be much higher than what was found. But these issues could be solved by introducing supersymmetry. This well-known particle Peter Higgs proposed will also be the subject of some of the classes taught.
The three fundamental interactions of the universe could be manifestations of a single force
Beyond just particles, this theoretical framework says that the fundamental forces of the universe, central to the Standard Model, are actually the same type of force. That is, electromagnetism, the strong interaction, which keeps quarks confined in protons and neutrons, and the weak interaction, responsible for some forms of radioactivity, are actually the same thing. But this one force can behave differently to result in the 3 observed differentiations. This relates to the first moments of the universe, when it is believed that these forces were unified and indistinguishable.
This discipline is very transversal to everything in particle physics, and SUSY 2024 will try to show supersymmetry from the most theoretical to the most experimental aspects. The talks and presentations will bring the attendees closer to the experiments done in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which pretends to find with its particle collisions, new ones, and discern their most fundamental characteristics. Not only that, experiments of future colliders beyond the LHC will be covered.
Dark matter, theory and experiment
Given that supersymmetry can help to describe the first instants of the universe, its importance in fields beyond particle physics, such as cosmology, becomes apparent. And these fields will also be taught at SUSY 2024.
One of the most striking topics in these classes is dark matter, that mysterious, invisible presence that seems to make up most of the matter in the universe. We do not know what it is made of, but supersymmetry offers its own candidate: neutralinos. They are hypothetical particles that could be part of this abundant matter, its effects observable in the gravity that moves all of the universe.
And even though there are other popular candidates, like axions, which would also solve other quantum mechanics problems, supersymmetry is not incompatible with these other theories. Dark matter could be partially formed by various types of particles such as these ones. This is a vanguard field, both in theory and experiment, and SUSY 2024 will try to show both aspects of this work, for cosmology also.
Beyond the Standard Model
However, even though SUSY is the titular theory for these events, it will not be the only one discussed. It will be important throughout these classes, but these events will try to talk on every theoretical framework beyond the Standard Model, and their associated experiments.
One of the most highlighted topics besides supersymmetry is phenomenology. It consists of applying theoretical physics and mathematical models to high energy experiments, so we can make more exact predictions. Given that the event tries to deepen the relation between theory and experiment, this connection will play an important role.
Supersymmetry, the Higgs boson, the LHC, dark matter, cosmology, and everything that takes physics beyond the Standard Model: these are just a few of the topics that will be discussed in the 10 plenaries and 30 panels at SUSY 2024 – Theory meets Experiment. From June 10th to June 14th, all these presentations will showcase the most recent theoretical and experimental developments, taking these fields to their most current limits.
By comunicacion / June 10, 2024