e.g. SUSY was expected to be true for decades by most of the world’s smartest physicists.
I really don’t want to go down a rabbit hole here, so probably won’t engage in further discussion, but I just want to chime in here and say that I’m pretty sure lots of the world’s smartest physicists (not sure what fraction) still expect the fundamental laws of physics in our universe to have (broken) supersymmetry, and I would go further and say that they have numerous very good reasons to expect that, like gauge coupling unification etc. Same as ever. The fact that supersymmetric partners were not found at LHC is nonzero evidence against supersymmetric partners existing, but it’s not strong evidence against them existing, because LHC was very very far from searching the whole space of possibilities. Also, we pretty much know for a fact that the universe contains at least one other yet-to-be-discovered elementary particle beyond the 17 (or whatever, depends on how you count) particles in the Standard Model. So I think it’s extremely premature to imply that the prediction of yet-to-be-discovered supersymmetric partner particles has been ruled out in our universe and haha look at those overconfident theoretical physicists. (A number of specific SUSY-involving theories have been ruled out, but I think the smart physicists knew all along that those were just plausible hypotheses worth checking, not confident theoretical predictions.)
OK you are answering at a level more detailed than I raised and seem to assume I didn’t consider such things. My reason and IMO the expected reading of “SUSY has failed” is not that such particles have been ruled out as I know they havn’t, but that its theoretical benefits are severely weakened or entirely ruled out according to recent data. My reference to SUSY was specifically regarding its opportunity to solve the Hierarchy Problem. This is the common understanding of one of the reasons it was proposed.
I stand by my claim that many/most of the top physicists expected for >1 decade that it would help solve such a problem. I disagree with the claim:
“but I think the smart physicists knew all along that those were just plausible hypotheses worth checking, ” Smart physicists thought SUSY would solve the hierarchy problem.
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Common knowledge, from GPT4:
“can SUSY still solve the Hierarchy problem with respect to recent results”
Hierarchy Problem: SUSY has been considered a leading solution to the hierarchy problem because it naturally cancels out the large quantum corrections that would drive the Higgs boson mass to a very high value. However, the non-observation of supersymmetric particles at expected energy levels has led some physicists to question whether SUSY can solve the hierarchy problem in its simplest forms.
Fine-Tuning: The absence of low-energy supersymmetry implies a need for fine-tuning in the theory, which contradicts one of the primary motivations for SUSY as a solution to the hierarchy problem. This has led to exploration of more complex SUSY models, such as those with split or high-scale supersymmetry, where SUSY particles exist at much higher energy scales.
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IMO ever more complex models rapidly become like epi-cycles.
I really don’t want to go down a rabbit hole here, so probably won’t engage in further discussion, but I just want to chime in here and say that I’m pretty sure lots of the world’s smartest physicists (not sure what fraction) still expect the fundamental laws of physics in our universe to have (broken) supersymmetry, and I would go further and say that they have numerous very good reasons to expect that, like gauge coupling unification etc. Same as ever. The fact that supersymmetric partners were not found at LHC is nonzero evidence against supersymmetric partners existing, but it’s not strong evidence against them existing, because LHC was very very far from searching the whole space of possibilities. Also, we pretty much know for a fact that the universe contains at least one other yet-to-be-discovered elementary particle beyond the 17 (or whatever, depends on how you count) particles in the Standard Model. So I think it’s extremely premature to imply that the prediction of yet-to-be-discovered supersymmetric partner particles has been ruled out in our universe and haha look at those overconfident theoretical physicists. (A number of specific SUSY-involving theories have been ruled out, but I think the smart physicists knew all along that those were just plausible hypotheses worth checking, not confident theoretical predictions.)
OK you are answering at a level more detailed than I raised and seem to assume I didn’t consider such things. My reason and IMO the expected reading of “SUSY has failed” is not that such particles have been ruled out as I know they havn’t, but that its theoretical benefits are severely weakened or entirely ruled out according to recent data. My reference to SUSY was specifically regarding its opportunity to solve the Hierarchy Problem. This is the common understanding of one of the reasons it was proposed.
I stand by my claim that many/most of the top physicists expected for >1 decade that it would help solve such a problem. I disagree with the claim:
“but I think the smart physicists knew all along that those were just plausible hypotheses worth checking, ” Smart physicists thought SUSY would solve the hierarchy problem.
----
Common knowledge, from GPT4:
“can SUSY still solve the Hierarchy problem with respect to recent results”
Hierarchy Problem: SUSY has been considered a leading solution to the hierarchy problem because it naturally cancels out the large quantum corrections that would drive the Higgs boson mass to a very high value. However, the non-observation of supersymmetric particles at expected energy levels has led some physicists to question whether SUSY can solve the hierarchy problem in its simplest forms.
Fine-Tuning: The absence of low-energy supersymmetry implies a need for fine-tuning in the theory, which contradicts one of the primary motivations for SUSY as a solution to the hierarchy problem. This has led to exploration of more complex SUSY models, such as those with split or high-scale supersymmetry, where SUSY particles exist at much higher energy scales.
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IMO ever more complex models rapidly become like epi-cycles.