Supersymmetry in Nuclei

Abstract

Most applications of supersymmetry ideas deal with problems in elementary particle and gravitational physics1. Several of these applications have been discussed at this Conference. In my talk, I will discuss some applications of supersymmetry ideas to nuclear physics. In particular, I will show that experimental examples of supersymmetry appear to have been found in the spectra of complex nuclei. The supersymmetries encountered in nuclei link together collective and single particle excitations. They are based on an algebraic approach to nuclear spectra in which the collective excitations are treated as a system of interacting bosons. When treated alone the collective excitations have three possible dynamical symmetries, all of which have been found experimentally. These symmetries are of the ordinary type, since the corresponding symmetry operations transform bosons into bosons. If the single particle excitations are added, one is led to consider a system of interacting bosons and fermions. The symmetries of this system are of the super (or graded) type, since the corresponding symmetry operations contain terms which transform bosons into fermions and viceversa.