The Benefits of Supersymmetry in Particle Physics

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Theory of supersymmetry is this symmetry between bosons and fermions. It's both super highly constrained in the sense that it is hard to write down theories of particle physics that are actually supersymmetric. The more supersymmetry you try to throw in, the more constrained things become. There's a natural living place for loop quantum gravity which is 3 plus 1-dimensional spacetime.

Physics is in crisis, what else is new? That's what we hear in certain corners, anyway, usually pointed at "fundamental" physics of particles and fields. (Condensed matter and biophysics etc. are just fine.) In this solo podcast I ruminate on the unusual situation fundamental physics finds itself in, where we have a theoretical understanding that fits almost all the data, but which nobody believes to be the final answer. I talk about how we got here, and argue that it's not really a "crisis" in any real sense. But there are ways I think the academic community could handle the problem better, especially by making more space for respectable but minority approaches to deep puzzles.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/07/31/245-solo-the-crisis-in-physics/

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