one of the most heated debates in science surrounds the existence of supersymmetry a theoretical model of physics predicting that each known particle in the universe has an undiscovered partner particle its a theory with legs in no small part because of its alluring potential to explain dark matter and dark energy which jointly account for roughly 95 percent of the universe and to tie together cosmology and particle physics at the earliest moments after the big bang discovery of the higgs boson plays a crucial role in providing proof of supersymmetry an essential component of m-theory which texas a&ms melanie becker describes as the unique quantum theory of gravity that unifies all superstring theories into a single theory (credit: cern) whether supersymmetry is proven or disproven one thing is certain: either result is expected to spawn a particle physics revolution whats not debatable however is that both breakthrough scenarios involve a substantial amount of sophisticated mathematics to that end a texas a&m university team led by physics professors katrin becker and melanie becker recently succeeded in computing the action of 11-dimensional supergravity resulting from a 7-dimensional kaluza-klein compactification including all massive fields the team also featured postdoctoral researchers daniel butter daniel robbins (now an assistant professor at the university of albany) and william linch as well as graduate student sunny guha for many years string theorists thought that it is only possible to calculate the massless fields of a realistic kaluza-klein compactification melanie becker says new fields continue to emerge in the supersymmetry multiplets that have not emerged in any previous description what does all this mean we do not know yet but it is clear that fascinating discoveries are waiting for their explanation dr katrin becker as for the explanation behind kaluza-klein katrin becker notes that it was the year 1921 when theodor kaluza discovered the beautiful idea that gravitation and electromagnetism might be unified in a theory of five-dimensional riemannian geometry a few years later the idea was further developed by oscar klein using quantum physics and many others thereafter and has since then been termed kaluza-klein or kk theory the basic idea is very simple katrin becker explains consider general relativity the geometric theory of gravitation published by albert einstein in 1915 and our current description of gravitation in modern physics in a five-dimensional view of space-time that is the product of an extremely small circle times our four-dimensional extended world an observer cannot see the small circle yet its properties are felt clearly the observer notices the four-dimensional gravitational force as well as an electromagnetic force he also becomes aware of the presence of a massless bosonic field along with an infinite tower of massive fields string theory has been described as one of the most ambitious and exciting theories ever proposed the long-sought theory of everything that eluded even einstein it postulates that 11 dimensions exist in nature seven of which remain curled up and invisible as opposed to einsteins three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time which are rolled out or flat allowing them to be seen many theoretical physicists including stephen hawking propose that the self-contained mathematical model is indeed the framework for all fundamental forces and forms of matter not to mention the only viable candidate to unify gravity with quantum theory as a real-world example melanie becker notes that we can observe boson particles which essentially are the force-carriers along with fermions that constitute the matter we see in our universe the quarks and leptons she describes supersymmetry as an elegant symmetry that rotates these bosons and fermions dr melanie becker such a symmetry is not manifest in our everyday lives melanie becker adds it is broken but it is believed it can be seen at very high energies in a particle accelerator the experimental high-energy physics group at texas a&m is carefully searching to find evidence for supersymmetry from the mathematical point of view the maximal dimension of space-time in which supersymmetry can live is 11 and indeed in 1978 cremmer julia and scherk constructed the unique theory describing supergravity in 11 dimensions incidentally this is the low-energy limit of m-theory the unique quantum theory of gravity that unifies all superstring theories into a single theory to come down from or compactify 11 space-time dimensions to the four we see katrin becker says the simple circle she describes above needs to be replaced by a small and compact seven-dimensional riemannian manifold but theres a catch: not every seven-dimensional manifold is allowed mathematicians tell us that the phenomenologically most interesting case of n=1 supersymmetry emerges if the small internal manifold has g2 holonomy katrin becker explains the holonomy of a manifold is a property of its shape that describes how much you rotate as you move around the manifold melanie (left) and katrin becker pictured in 2005 at harvard university prior to coming to texas a&m university (credit: tony rinaldo / harvard university) the becker sisters experts in string theory who were recruited to the texas a&m department of physics and astronomy as part of former texas a&m president robert m gates faculty reinvestment program both came to texas a&m in fall 2006 after completing yearlong fellowships at harvard universitys radcliffe institute for advanced study along with fellow george p and cynthia woods mitchell institute for fundamental physics and astronomy researchers christopher pope and ergin sezgin they focus on understanding gravity and gauge theories at the most fundamental level to learn more about supersymmetry and other high-energy theory related research underway in the mitchell institute visit http://mitchelltamuedu/research/high-energy-theory/ watch world-famous string theorist and bestselling author brian greene explain possible evidence for supersymmetrys existence in this youtube video from world science u: # # # # # # # # # # about research at texas a&m university: as one of the worlds leading research institutions texas a&m is at the forefront in making significant contributions to scholarship and discovery including that of science and technology research conducted at texas a&m represented annual expenditures of more than $8927 million in fiscal year 2016 texas a&m ranked in the top 20 of the national science foundations higher education research and development survey (2015) based on expenditures of more than $8666 million in fiscal year 2015 texas a&ms research creates new knowledge that provides basic fundamental and applied contributions resulting in many cases in economic benefits to the state nation and world to learn more visit http://researchtamuedu -atm- contact: shana k hutchins (979) 862-1237 or shutchins@sciencetamuedu dr katrin becker (979) 458-7913 or kbecker@physicstamuedu or dr melanie becker (979) 458-7912 or mbecker@physicstamuedu