" A further extension of the Standard Model can be found in the theory of supersymmetry, which proposes a massive supersymmetric "partner" for every particle in the conventional Standard Model. Supersymmetric particles have been suggested as a candidate for explaining dark matter . Although supersymmetric particles have not been observed experimentally to date, the theory is one of the most popular avenues of research in theoretical particle physics. References Textbooks Griffiths, David J. (1987) Introduction to Elementary Particles, Wiley, John & Sons, Inc. ISBN 0471603864 Journal Articles Y. Hayato et al. America Next Top Model And Sarah, Search for Proton Decay through p → νK+ in a Large Water Cherenkov Detector. Phys. "

" This is because it has two important defects: The model contains 19 free parameters, such as particle masses, which must be determined experimentally (plus another 10 for neutrino masses). These parameters cannot be independently calculated. The model does not describe the gravitational interaction. Since the completion of the Standard Model, many efforts have been made to address these problems. One attempt to address the first defect is known as grand unification. The so-called grand unified theories (GUTs) hypothesized that the SU(3), SU(2), and U(1) groups are actually subgroups of a single large symmetry group. At high energies (far beyond the reach of current experiments), the symmetry of the unifying group is preserved; at low energies, it reduces to SU(3)×SU(2)×U(1) by a process known as spontaneous symmetry breaking. America Model Next Rerun Top The first theory of this kind was proposed in 1974 by Georgi and Glashow, using SU(5) as the unifying group. A distinguishing characteristic of these GUTs is that, unlike the Standard model, they predict the existence of proton decay. "