Introduction to Supersymmetry and Supergravity

Abstract

Over the past years, we have witnessed a dramatic increase in “public interest” in supersymmetry and super gravity. This interest cannot as yet be based on any solid experimental facts, but it has nevertheless become clear that supersymmetry has many attractive features to offer and that it will probably play an important role in the ultimate unification of the fundamental particle interactions. This unification constitutes one of the most ambitious endeavors in theoretical physics, because it necessarily involves the extrapolation in energy over many Orders of magnitude where no experimental information is expected to become available. The main reason why supersymmetry and supergravity are so attractive is that, at the present time, there appear to be no other candidate theories that may enable us to simultaneously solve the three out standing problems of modern elementary particle physics.

Lectures given at the XXII. Internationale Universitätswochen für Kernphysik, Schladming, Austria, February 23 – March 5, 1983.