Supersymmetry hypothesizes that there is a close connection between two different groups of particles—fermions and bosons. Fermions include all of the leptons and all of the quarks, while the photon, gluon, W, Z, and Higgs are each bosons. The basic idea behind supersymmetry is that each fermion is directly related to and partnered with a boson with many of the same properties, and vice versa. For example, in order for the electron to exist, there must also be a bosonic superpartner with the same electric charge and other quantum properties—the selectron. And because the photon exists,
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