For several decades the energy source powering supernovae and gamma ray
bursts has been a troubling mystery. Many articles on these phenomena have been
content to model the consequences of an unknown "central engine" depositing a
large amount of energy in a small region. In the case of supernovae this is
somewhat unsettling since the type 1a supernovae are assumed to be
"standardizable candles" from which important information concerning the dark
energy can be derived. It should be expected that a more detailed understanding
of supernovae dynamics could lead to a reduction of the errors in this
relationship. Similarly, the current state of the standard model theory of
gamma ray bursts, which in some cases have been associated with supernovae, has
conceptual gaps not only in the central engine but also in the mechanism for
jet collimation and the lack of baryon loading. We discuss here the
Supersymmetric (susy) phase transition model for the central engine.Comment: 18 pages including 9 figures. Based on a talk presented at the
Fermilab conference, "Fundamental Physics from Clusters of Galaxies",
December 9-11, 200