(1) What is your essential question? What is the best answer to your question and why?
My essential question is "Why is finding supersymmetric particles an important task for physicists to undertake?" My best answer to this question is, "Supersymmetry provides the most complete solution to the problem of the vacuum energy." I chose this as my best answer over all the others because the problem of the vacuum energy (also known as the quantum vacuum or the cosmological constant) is one of the oldest and most confounding unsolved problems in cosmology, and it is one that directly affects the longevity of the universe we live in. According to MIT physicist Max Tegmark in Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, an unstable vacuum means the universe has a much better chance of decaying into a lower energy state (as it did during the Big Bang.) If supersymmetry exists and we understand the method of supersymmetry breaking, this problem will be solved.
(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?
Originally, I had wanted to focus on gravity in quantum mechanics and the unification of general relativity with quantum mechanics. However, after I read Leonard Susskind's The Cosmic Landscape and Lisa Randall's Warped Passages, I discovered that string theory cannot include gravity without the existence of supersymmetry. I decided that it was quite possible supersymmetry would provide solutions to other problems in physics and cosmology, so I decided to focus my senior project on it. I discovered that not only does supersymmetry complete string theory, it also resolves the Hierarchy Problem of the Standard Model, the problem of the vacuum energy, and it provides multiple candidates for dark matter that fit well with observations, as I discovered in the numerous papers I read for my science project. When I considered these problems and looked at the enormous cost of experiments dedicated to finding physics beyond the Standard Model, I decided the most important one was the problem of the vacuum energy. As of yet, it cannot be resolved without the existence of supersymmetry, and an unstable vacuum means our universe is due for another Big Bang-esque decay. If physicists do not find supersymmetric particles, they will have to dedicated their time to conceiving other theories to resolve this problem.
(3) What problems did you face? How did you resolve them?
There are almost no women in physics, so whenever I go to functions with my mentor at Caltech or when I hang out with physicists my own age, I feel sort of awkward. I wanted to find a female mentor, since I believe girls need positive female role models to encourage them to go into science and math, but that was nearly impossible. This isn't really a problem I can solve, for I am but a lowly high school student. In the future, I hope to be part of the solution and be a role model for young girls like myself. Also, I was in no way equipped to do the math, so I buckled down and taught myself calculus online and from a book, with help from the grad students at my mentorship.
(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?
The two most important sources I used were my fourth interview with Joe Polchinski of the Institute for Theoretical Physics at UC Santa Barbara. He gave me the most in-depth analysis of superstring theory, supersymmetry and quantum gravity I had gotten. Before this interview I had ignored the problem of understanding supersymmetry breaking, but his explanation made me understand its significance. My second most important source was a paper called Implications of a 125 GeV Higgs for Neutralino Dark Matter in the MSSM by Howard Baer, Vernon Barger and Azer Mustafayev. Apart from being the first real technical paper I learned to decipher, this was the most current analysis of supersymmetric parameter space and its implications with the most accurate measurement of the Higgs mass.
(5) What is your product and why?
I used to not understand why people dedicate their whole lives to studying the universe, which appeared to me as a cold, hostile, lifeless place. Why did no one care about our little swatch of the universe, where more and more terrible things seemed to be happening everyday? Now that I've done my science project and done all of this research, I understand what drives people to spend their whole lives in pursuit of discovery. I have greatly increased my own curiosity about the universe and, in doing so, broadened my view of life on Earth. I realize we are all pretty much the same-just recycled atoms from old stars that have grown sentient. I was afraid studying physics would turn me into Edward Teller or Werner Heisenberg, but instead I feel more like Erwin Schrodinger, who never let the turmoil of the 20th century interfere with his quest for discovery, or allowed his scientific ambitions to turn him away from the people in this world. I think if more people understood where we came from, the world would be a much more harmonious place.
Enjoy this picture of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation courtesy of the Planck Satellite. This is the universe at the youngest we can see it. If you turn your radio to white noise, you can hear this buzzing about. The universe is talking to you!
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