Searches for supersymmetry at high-energy colliders

This review summarizes the state of the art in searches for supersymmetry at colliders on the eve of the Large Hadron Collider era. Supersymmetry is unique among extensions of the standard model in being motivated by naturalness, dark matter, and force unification, both with and without gravity. At the same time, weak-scale supersymmetry encompasses a wide range of experimental signals that are also found in many other frameworks. Motivations for supersymmetry are recalled and the various models and their distinctive features are reviewed. Searches for neutral and charged Higgs bosons and standard-model superpartners at the high energy frontier are summarized comprehensively, considering both canonical and noncanonical supersymmetric models, and including results from the LEP collider at CERN, HERA at DESY, and the Fermilab Tevatron.