Hide and Seek with Supersymmetry

TL;DR

This paper provides an introductory overview of supersymmetry, discussing its theoretical motivation, potential experimental signatures like the muon magnetic moment, and the challenges in detecting its broken form.

Contribution

It offers a clear, accessible explanation of supersymmetry's role in addressing the hierarchy problem and how it might be hidden from current experiments.

Findings

Supersymmetry could be just around the corner at or below 1 TeV.

The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon can reveal supersymmetry.

Supersymmetry's breaking conceals its detection, making it a hidden symmetry.

Abstract

This is the summary of a 90 minute introductory lecture on Supersymmetry presented at the Swiss Summer School on ``Hidden Symmetries and Higgs Phenomena'' at Zuoz, Engadin, in August 1998. I first review the hierarchy problem, and then discuss why we expect supersymmetry just around the corner, i.e. at or below $1\tev$. I focus on the specific example of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon to show how supersymmetry can indeed hide just around the corner without already having been detected. An essential part of supersymmetry's disguise is the fact that it is broken. I end by briefly outlining how the disguise itself is also hidden.