A few blogs are commenting on the still-paywalled Scientific American article, “Supersymmetry and the Crisis in Physics,” quoting
It is not an exaggeration to say that most of the world’s particle physicists believe that supersymmetry must be true—the theory is that compelling. These physicists’ long-term hope has been that the LHC would finally discover these superpartners, providing hard evidence that supersymmetry is a real description of the universe…
Of those who think that modern methodological naturalism isn’t a religion, one must ask: What sort of beliefs (other than mathematical axioms) must be true? Surely, only beliefs that have attained the status of a religion.
Very well, we aren’t against religion. But what if nature does not co-operate? From the article,
Indeed, results from the first run of the LHC have ruled out almost all the best-studied versions of supersymmetry. The negative results are beginning to produce if not a full-blown crisis in particle physics, then at least a widespread panic. The LHC will be starting its next run in early 2015, at the highest energies it was designed for, allowing researchers at the ATLAS and CMS experiments to uncover (or rule out) even more massive superpartners. If at the end of that run nothing new shows up, fundamental physics will face a crossroads: either abandon the work of a generation for …
Either face reality or retreat into a cult.
Not Even Wrong has apposite comments. See also: Supersymmetry at a crossroads? No kidding! Again?
For a brief look at how we got here, see The Science Fictions series at your fingertips (cosmology).
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