Applied supersymmetry and supergravity

The author discusses in some detail the structure and physical consequences of global and local supersymmetric (SUSY) gauge theories. He presents motivations for SUSY theories, explains what supersymmetry is, and its physical properties. The observable consequences of SUSY as low energies and superhigh energies are discussed. The physical structure of simple (N=1) local SUSY ( identical to supergravity) is given, together with the physics of simple supergravity both at superhigh as well as at low energies. The possible experimental evidence for supersymmetry is analysed and the conclusions are presented. It is found that gravitational effects, as contained in supergravity theories, may play a rather fundamental role at all energy scales. This strong interrelation between gravity and particle physics is unprecedented.