The Status of Supersymmetry

The Standard Model of particle physics is both fantastically successful and glaringly incomplete.

Its predictions have pieced together many of the known features of the universe and guided physicists to new discoveries, such as the Higgs boson. But it cannot account for the existence of dark matter—the mysterious substance that makes up 85% of the universe’s matter—or explain the Higgs boson’s mass.

How can scientists fill the gaps? For decades, a set of theories collectively known as supersymmetry seemed to provide an elegant solution.