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Supersymmetry (SUSY) is a particular type of extension to the standard model of particle physics that theorizes an additional set of leptons and bosons with an additional lepton corresponding to each known boson and vice versa. The additional particles (superparticles aka sparticles) would have a spin quantum number which is 1/2 different from the corresponding known particle. Some superparticle terms:
| known lepton | supersymmetric boson |
| quark | squark |
| neutrino | sneutrino |
| electron | selectron |
| muon | smuon |
| tau | stau |
| known boson | supersymmetric lepton |
| gluon | gluino |
| photon | photino |
| Z boson | zino |
| W boson | wino |
| Higgs boson | Higgsino |
Neutralinos would be a result of quantum mixing of some of the superparticles. One of the neutralinos is a candidate as a WIMP, as is the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), which is whichever of these particles has the least non-zero mass. These possibilities have been a major motivation toward discovering any of these particles and establishing supersymmetry.
The minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) is a supersymmetry variant that adds as little as possible to the standard model. Supergravity (SUGRA) is a supersymmetry theory variant that also incorporates general relativity.