Theory And Phenomenology Of Sparticles: An Account Of Four-dimensional N=1 Supersymmetry In High Energy Physics

Supersymmetry, or SUSY, one of the most beautiful recent ideas of physics, predicts the existence of sparticles. This book provides an introductory, pedagogical and user-friendly presentation of the observational aspects of sparticles. It also covers those unifying properties of softly broken N=1 supersymmetry which fall within a phenomenological ambit. However, it has been made self-contained by the inclusion of the requisite formal theory as well as an introductory discussion of the naturalness problem at the beginning (Part One). Part Two describes the supersymmetrization of the Standard Model of particle interactions. An exposition of the basic structure of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is followed by discussions of soft supersymmetry breaking and of constraints from high scale physics related to the origin of the latter. Other topics covered include search strategies for sparticles, Susy Higgs bosons, nonminimal scenarios and implications for cosmological dark matter.