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He and Dr. Zumino published a paper about supergravity in June 1976.

However, another group of physicists — Daniel Freedman, Sergio Ferrara and Peter van Nieuwenhuizen — beat them to the punch, describing supergravity in a paper that had been completed about a month before Dr. Deser and Dr. Zumino submitted theirs.

Supergravity includes gravitons — the gravitational equivalent of photons — and adds a supersymmetric partner, the gravitino.

Dr. Deser is perhaps best known for his work in the 1970s as one of the pioneers of supergravity, which expanded an idea known as supersymmetry to include gravity.

Dr. Deser worked with Bruno Zumino, one of the originators of supersymmetry, to add gravity to the theory, creating the theory of supergravity.