All forms of energy are either bosons (integral spin i.e. 0,1,2,...) or are fermions (half integral spin i.e. 1/2, 3/2, 5/2,...) . All interactions are mediated by bosons (photon, gluon, graviton...) and all matter is constituted of quarks and leptons that are fermions.
Supersymmetry postulates that for every particle there is a corresponding supersymmetric partner (or "sparticle") which has a spin that is different by 1/2 unit. For example, the spin-1/2 electron will have a spin-0 supersymmetric partner called a "selectron", and the spin-1 photon has a spin-1/2 partner named a "photino".
The introduction of supersymmetry helps to solve the so called Higgs divergence problem in the standard model, which is that the mass of the Higgs particle would be infinite if not for supersymmetry. To learn more about this, follow this link.
Although bosons and fermions appear to be quite dissimilar, they are in fact simply "components" of a larger entity called a superfield, and which naturally emerges from the study of supersymmetry.
Last updated: 06 March, 2000
