Unifying the Fundamental Forces

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I've read that at certain energy levels the fundamental forces are united or are equal strength. How does the energy level affect the strength of the forces?
 
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Drakkith said:
I've read that at certain energy levels the fundamental forces are united or are equal strength. How does the energy level affect the strength of the forces?

The coupling strenght of the force mediateros (gauge bosons) change with energy. Trying to understand that with the electron charge as example;

The electron charge causes a field around the electron. In this field, dipoles of particle/anti-particle pairs are created and align themselves with the field, which causes a screening of the charge. The more we raise the energy, the shorter distances can we examine, the closer we get to the electron and the larger is the effective charge we measure.

At higher energy, the strong force gets weaker while the weak and electromagnetic force gets stronger.
 
Drakkith said:
I've read that at certain energy levels the fundamental forces are united or are equal strength. How does the energy level affect the strength of the forces?

It's probably worth noting that this unification only really works if there's SUSY.
 
Parlyne said:
It's probably worth noting that this unification only really works if there's SUSY.

What is SUSY?