Supersymmetric Models

Abstract

Supersymmetry in high-energy physics predicts bosonic and fermionic states with equal energies. Certain general ideas of supersymmetry were adopted to models in solid-state physics. They are often described by pairs of operators Q and Q ^†, which allow for pairs of Hamiltonians Q ^† Q and QQ ^† with the same spectrum. An example is the hydrogen atom. A class of models has the property Q ² = 0. They yield either chiral models with pairs of energy levels E and − E if the Hamiltonian is linear in Q and Q ^†, or models with pairs of states with the same energy if the Hamiltonian is bilinear in Q and Q ^†.