Zdecay into a bottom quark, a light sbottom, and a light gluino

Abstract

The discrepancy between the measured and theoretical production cross section of $b$ quarks at the Tevatron can probably be explained by the recently proposed scenario of light gluinos of mass 12-16 GeV and light sbottoms of mass $2-5.5$ GeV. In this scenario, we study a related process at the $Z$ pole, $Z \to b \tilde{b}_1^* \tilde{g} + \bar b \tilde{b}_1 \tilde{g}$ followed by $\tilde{g} \to b \tilde{b}_1^* / \bar b \tilde{b}_1$. The hadronic branching ratio for this channel is $(1-3) \times 10^{-3}$, which is of order of the size of the uncertainty in $R_b$. We find that a typical event consists of an energetic prompt bottom-jet back-to-back with a ``fat'' bottom-jet, which consists of a bottom quark and two bottom squarks. Such events with a $10^{-3}$ branching ratio may affect the measurement of $R_b$; even more interesting if the ``fat'' bottom jet can be identified.