Supersymmetry

This book describes the basic concepts of supersymmetric theories. It is aimed at theorists, experimentalists and cosmologists interested in supersymmetry, and its content is correspondingly divided into three distinct tracks of study. The topics covered include a discussion of the motivation for supersymmetry in fundamental physics, a description of the minimal supersymmetric model as well as models of grand unification and string models, a presentation of the main scenarios for supersymmetry breaking, including the concepts and results of dynamical breaking. On the astrophysics/cosmology side, the book includes discussions of supersymmetric dark matter candidates, inflation, dark energy, and the cosmological constant problem. Some very basic knowledge of quantum field theory is needed and extensive appendices (in particular an introduction to the Standard Model of fundamental interactions) allow the reader to refresh and complete their notions.1. The problems of the Standard Model ; 2. The singular role of supersymmetry ; 3. Basic supermultiplets ; 4. The supersymmetry algebra and its representations ; 5. The minimal supersymmetric model ; 6. Supergravity ; 7. Phenomenology of supersymmetric models: supersymmetry at the quantum level ; 8. Dynamical breaking. Duality. ; 9. Supersymmetric grand unification ; 10. An overview of string theory and string models ; 11. Supersymmetry and the early universe ; 12. The challenges of supersymmetry ; A. A review of the Standard Model and of various notions of quantum field theory ; B. Spinors ; C. Superfields ; D. An introduction to cosmology ; E. Renormalization group equations