Compressed Mass Spectra Research Articles

Probing the stau-neutralino coannihilation region at the LHC with a soft tau lepton and a jet from initial state radiation

We present a feasibility study, to search for dark matter at the LHC, in events with one soft hadronically decaying tau lepton and missing transverse energy recoiling against a hard $p_{T}$ jet from initial state radiation. This methodology allows the search for Supersymmetry in compressed mass spectra regions, where the mass difference between the lightest neutralino, $\tilde\chi_1^0$, and the stau (the tau superpartner), $\tilde{\tau}$, is small. Several theoretical models predict a direct connection between thermal Bino dark matter and staus within this scenario. We show that compressed regions, not excluded by ATLAS nor CMS experiments, are opened up with the increase in experimental sensitivity reached with the proposed methodology. The requirement of a hard jet from initial state radiation combined with a soft tau lepton is effective in reducing Standard Model backgrounds, providing expected significances greater than 3$\sigma$ for $\tilde{\chi}_{1}^{\pm}$ masses up to 300 GeV and $\tilde{\tau}$-$\tilde{\chi}_{1}^{0}$ mass gaps below 25 GeV with only 30 fb$^{-1}$ of 13 TeV data from the LHC.

Dark matter interpretations of ATLAS searches for the electroweak production of supersymmetric particles in s = 8 $$ \sqrt{s}=8 $$ TeV proton-proton collisions

A selection of searches by the ATLAS experiment at the LHC for the electroweak production of SUSY particles are used to study their impact on the constraints on dark matter candidates. The searches use $20\,{\rm fb}^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV. A likelihood-driven scan of a five-dimensional effective model focusing on the gaugino--higgsino and Higgs sector of the phenomenological minimal supersymmetric Standard Model is performed. This scan uses data from direct dark matter detection experiments, the relic dark matter density and precision flavour physics results. Further constraints from the ATLAS Higgs mass measurement and SUSY searches at LEP are also applied. A subset of models selected from this scan are used to assess the impact of the selected ATLAS searches in this five-dimensional parameter space. These ATLAS searches substantially impact those models for which the mass $m(\tilde{\chi}^0_1)$ of the lightest neutralino is less than 65 GeV, excluding 86% of such models. The searches have limited impact on models with larger $m(\tilde{\chi}^0_1)$ due to either heavy electroweakinos or compressed mass spectra where the mass splittings between the produced particles and the lightest supersymmetric particle is small.

Stop search in the compressed region via semileptonic decays

In supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, the superpartners of the top quark (stops) play the crucial role in addressing the naturalness problem. For direct pair-production of stops with each stop decaying into a top quark plus the lightest neutralino, the standard stop searches have difficulty finding the stop for a compressed spectrum where the mass difference between the stop and the lightest neutralino is close to the top quark mass, because the events look too similar to the large $t\bar{t}$ background. With an additional hard ISR jet, the two neutralinos from the stop decays are boosted in the opposite direction and they can give rise to some missing transverse energy. This may be used to distinguish the stop decays from the backgrounds. In this paper we study the semileptonic decay of such signal events for the compressed mass spectrum. Although the neutrino from the $W$ decay also produces some missing transverse energy, its momentum can be reconstructed from the kinematic assumptions and mass-shell conditions. It can then be subtracted from the total missing transverse momentum to obtain the neutralino contribution. Because it suffers from less backgrounds, we show that the semileptonic decay channel has a better discovery reach than the fully hadronic decay channel along the compressed line $m_{\tilde{t}} - m_{\tilde{\chi}}\approx m_t$. With 300 $\text{fb}^{-1}$, the 13 TeV LHC can discover the stop up to 500 GeV, covering the most natural parameter space region.

For a light stop, less is more when gluinos mediate

Compressed mass spectra are generally more difficult to identify than spectra with large splittings. In particular, gluino pair production with four high energy top or bottom quarks leaves a striking signature in a detector. However, if any of the mass splittings are compressed, the power of traditional techniques may deteriorate. Searches for direct stop/sbottom pair production can be recast as searches for gluinos in order to extend the sensitivitity. As a demonstration, we show that for [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], limits on the stop mass at 8 TeV can be extended by least 300 GeV for a 1.1 TeV gluino using a [Formula: see text] search. At 13 TeV, the effective cross-section for the gluino mediated process is twice the direct stop pair production cross-section, suggesting that direct stop searches could be sensitive to discover new physics earlier than expected.

Search for supersymmetry in events with soft leptons, low jet multiplicity, and missing transverse energy in proton–proton collisions at s=8 TeV

Results are presented from a search for supersymmetric particles in scenarios with a compressed mass spectrum. The data sample corresponds to 19.7 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collisions recorded by the CMS experiment at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. The search targets top squark pair production in scenarios with mass differences Delta m = m(top squark) - m(neutralino) below the W-boson mass and with top-squark decays in the four-body mode (top squark to b l nu neutralino), where the neutralino is assumed to be the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). The signature includes a high transverse momentum (pt) jet associated with initial-state radiation, one or two low-pt leptons, and significant missing transverse energy. The event yields observed in data are consistent with the expected background contributions from standard model processes. Limits are set on the cross section for top squark pair production as a function of the top squark and LSP masses. Assuming a 100% branching fraction for the four-body decay mode, top-squark masses below 316 GeV are excluded for Delta m = 25 GeV at 95% CL. The dilepton data are also interpreted under the assumption of chargino-neutralino production, with subsequent decays to sleptons or sneutrinos. Assuming a difference between the common lightest chargino/next lightest neutralino mass and the LSP mass of 20 GeV and a tau-enriched decay scenario, masses in the range m(chargino) < 307 GeV are excluded at 95% CL.

Explanation of the ATLAS Z-peaked excess by squark pair production in the NMSSM

The ATLAS collaboration recently reported a $3\sigma$ excess in the leptonic-$Z+jets+E_{T}^{miss}$ channel. We intend to interpret this excess by squark pair production in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). The decay chain we employ is $\tilde{q} \to q \tilde{\chi}_2^0 \to q \tilde{\chi}_1^0 Z$, where $\tilde{\chi}_1^0$ and $\tilde{\chi}_2^0$ denote the lightest and the next-to-lightest neutralinos with singlino and bino as their dominant components respectively. Our simulations indicate that after considering the constraints from the ATLAS searches for $jets + E_{T}^{miss}$ signal the central value of the excess can be obtained for $m_{\tilde{q}} \lesssim 1.2 {\rm TeV}$, and if the constraint from the CMS on-$Z$ search is further considered, more than 10 signal events are still attainable for $m_{\tilde{q}} \lesssim 750 {\rm GeV}$. Compared with the interpretation by gluino pair production, the squark explanation allows for a significantly wider range of $m_{\tilde{q}}$ as well as a less compressed SUSY mass spectrum. We also show that the squark explanation will be readily tested at the initial stage of the 14 TeV LHC.

Probing compressed sleptons at the LHC using vector boson fusion processes

The vector boson fusion (VBF) topology at the Large Hadron Collider at 14 TeV provides an opportunity to search for new physics. A feasibility study for the search of sleptons in a compressed mass spectra scenario is presented in the final state of two jets, one or two low $p_{T}$ non-resonant leptons, and missing energy. The presence of the VBF tagged jets and missing energy are effective in reducing Standard Model backgrounds. Using smuon production with a mass difference between $\tilde{l}_{L}$ and $\tilde{\chi}_{1}^0$ of 5-15 GeV, the significance of observing the signal events is found to be $\sim$ 3-6$\sigma$ for $m_{\tilde{l}}$=115-135 GeV, considering an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$.

Physics at a Higgsino factory

Naturalness arguments applied to supersymmetric theories imply a spectrum containing four light higgsinos \tz_{1,2} and \tw_1^+- with masses ~ 100-300 GeV (the closer to M_Z the more natural). The compressed mass spectrum and associated low energy release from \tw_1 and \tz_2 three-body decay makes higgsinos difficult to detect at LHC14, while the other sparticles might be heavy, and possibly even beyond LHC14 reach. In contrast, the International Linear e^+e^- Collider (ILC) with \sqrt{s}>2m(higgsino) would be a {\it higgsino factory} in addition to a Higgs boson factory and would serve as a discovery machine for natural SUSY! In this case, both chargino and neutralino production %which give rise to distinct event topologies, occur at comparable rates, and lead to observable signals above SM backgrounds. We examine two benchmark cases, one just beyond the LHC8 reach with \tw_1(\tz_2)-\tz_1 mass gap of 15 (21) GeV, and a second more difficult case beyond even the LHC14 reach, where the mass gap is just 10 GeV, close to its minimum in models with no worse than 3% fine-tuning. The signal is characterized by low visible energy events together with MET in the one or two jets +1\ell channel from chargino production, and in the opposite sign, same-flavour, acoplanar dilepton channel from \tz_1\tz_2 production. For both cases, we find that the signal is observable above backgrounds from the usual 2-> 2 SM events and from \gamma\gamma collisions with just a few fb^{-1} of integrated luminosity. We also show that with an integrated luminosity of 100~fb^{-1}, it should be possible to extract \tw_1, \tz_2 and \tz_1 masses to percent level. These measurements would point to higgsinos as the origin of new physics and strongly suggest a link to a natural origin for W, Z and h masses.

Constraints on models with universal extra dimensions from dilepton searches at the LHC

Models with universal extra dimensions predict that each Standard Model particle is accompanied by a tower of Kaluza-Klein resonances. Canonical searches for the production and cascade decays of first Kaluza-Klein modes through missing transverse momentum signatures suffer in general from low detection efficiencies because of the rather compressed Kaluza-Klein particle mass spectrum. Here, instead we analyze signatures from the production of second Kaluza-Klein states which can decay into Standard Model particles and thus do not result in any missing transverse momentum. Such signatures provide a strong sensitivity, and are of particular interest as they would allow for a clear distinction between extra dimension models and other models of new physics like supersymmetry. We constrain the production of second Kaluza-Klein particles from recent LHC searches for dilepton resonances, and place limits on the compactification scale to be larger than 715GeV, and on the masses of the second Kaluza-Klein particles to be larger than 1.4TeV.

Constraining compressed supersymmetry using leptonic signatures

Abstract We study the impact of the multi-lepton searches at the LHC on supersymmetric models with compressed mass spectra. For such models the acceptances of the usual search strategies are significantly reduced due to requirement of large effective mass and $ E_T^{\mathrm{miss}} $ . On the other hand, lepton searches do have much lower thresholds for $ E_T^{\mathrm{miss}} $ and p T of the final state objects. Therefore, if a model with a compressed mass spectrum allows for multi-lepton final states, one could derive constraints using multi-lepton searches. For a class of simplified models we study the exclusion limits using ATLAS multi-lepton search analyses for the final states containing 2-4 electrons or muons with a total integrated luminosity of 1-2 fb−1 at $ \sqrt{s}=7\,\mathrm{TeV} $ . We also modify those analyses by imposing additional cuts, so that their sensitivity to compressed supersymmetric models increase. Using the original and modified analyses, we show that the exclusion limits can be competitive with jet plus $ E_T^{\mathrm{miss}} $ searches, providing exclusion limits up to gluino masses of 1 TeV. We also analyse the efficiencies for several classes of events coming from different intermediate state particles. This allows us to assess exclusion limits in similar class of models with different cross sections and branching ratios without requiring a Monte Carlo simulation.

Compressed supersymmetry after1 fb−1at the Large Hadron Collider

We study the reach of the Large Hadron Collider with $1\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{fb}}^{\ensuremath{-}1}$ of data at $\sqrt{s}=7\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{TeV}$ for several classes of supersymmetric models with compressed mass spectra, using jets and missing transverse energy cuts like those employed by ATLAS for summer 2011 data. In the limit of extreme compression, the best limits come from signal regions that do not require more than 2 or 3 jets and that remove backgrounds by requiring more missing energy rather than a higher effective mass.

Large Hadron Collider reach for supersymmetric models with compressed mass spectra

Many theoretical and experimental results on the reach of the Large Hadron Collider are based on the mSUGRA-inspired scenario with universal soft supersymmetry breaking parameters at the apparent gauge coupling unification scale. We study signals for supersymmetric models in which the sparticle mass range is compressed compared to mSUGRA, using cuts like those employed by ATLAS for 2010 data. The acceptance and the cross-section times acceptance are found for several model lines that employ a compression parameter to smoothly interpolate between the mSUGRA case and the extreme case of degenerate gaugino masses at the weak scale. For models with moderate compression, the reach is not much worse, and can even be substantially better, than the mSUGRA case. For very compressed mass spectra, the acceptances are drastically reduced, especially when a more stringent effective mass cut is chosen.

Radiative [formula omitted] symmetry breaking and the [formula omitted] mediated SUSY breaking

We explore a mechanism of radiative B–L symmetry breaking in analogous to the radiative electroweak symmetry breaking. The breaking scale of B–L symmetry is related to the neutrino masses through the see-saw mechanism. Once we incorporate the U(1)B–L gauge symmetry in SUSY models, the U(1)B–L gaugino, Z˜B–L appears, and it can mediate the SUSY breaking (Z-prime mediated SUSY breaking) at around the scale of 106 GeV. Then we find a links between the neutrino mass (more precisely the see-saw or B–L scale of order 106 GeV) and the Z-prime mediated SUSY breaking scale. It is also very interesting that the gluino at the weak scale becomes relatively light, and almost compressed mass spectra for the gaugino sector can be realized in this scenario, which is very interesting in scope of the LHC.

Implications of compressed supersymmetry for collider and dark matter searches

Martin has proposed a scenario dubbed ``compressed supersymmetry'' (SUSY) where the MSSM is the effective field theory between energy scales M_{\rm weak} and M_{\rm GUT}, but with the GUT scale SU(3) gaugino mass M_3<< M_1 or M_2. As a result, squark and gluino masses are suppressed relative to slepton, chargino and neutralino masses, leading to a compressed sparticle mass spectrum, and where the dark matter relic density in the early universe may be dominantly governed by neutralino annihilation into ttbar pairs via exchange of a light top squark. We explore the dark matter and collider signals expected from compressed SUSY for two distinct model lines with differing assumptions about GUT scale gaugino mass parameters. For dark matter signals, the compressed squark spectrum leads to an enhancement in direct detection rates compared to models with unified gaugino masses. Meanwhile, neutralino halo annihilation rates to gamma rays and anti-matter are also enhanced relative to related scenarios with unified gaugino masses but, depending on the halo dark matter distribution, may yet be below the sensitivity of indirect searches underway. In the case of collider signals, we compare the rates for the potentially dominant decay modes of the stop_1 which may be expected to be produced in cascade decay chains at the LHC: \tst_1\to c\tz_1 and \tst_1\to bW\tz_1. We examine the extent to which multilepton signal rates are reduced when the two-body decay mode dominates. For the model lines that we examine here, the multi-lepton signals, though reduced, still remain observable at the LHC.

Compressed supersymmetry and natural neutralino dark matter from top squark-mediated annihilation to top quarks

The parameters of the minimal supersymmetric standard model appear to require uncomfortably precise adjustment in order to reconcile the electroweak symmetry breaking scale with the lower mass limits on a neutral Higgs scalar boson. This problem can be significantly ameliorated in models with a running gluino mass parameter that is smaller than the wino mass near the scale of unification of gauge couplings. A compressed superpartner mass spectrum results; compared to models with unified gaugino masses, the ratios of the squark and gluino masses to the lightest superpartner mass are reduced. I argue that in this scenario the annihilation of binolike neutralino pairs to top-antitop quark pairs through top-squark exchange can most naturally play the crucial role in ensuring that the thermal relic dark matter density is not too large, with only a small role played by coannihilations. The lightest superpartner mass must then exceed the top-quark mass, and the lighter top squark cannot decay to a top quark. These conditions have important implications for collider searches.

A note on the statistical evaluation of compressed mass spectra obtained from dust particles in the coma of comet Halley

A note on the statistical evaluation of compressed mass spectra obtained from dust particles in the coma of comet Halley

Classification of binary mass spectra of toxic compounds with an inductive expert system and comparison with SIMCA class modeling

The performance of an inexpensive, inductive rule-building expert shell system, based on the ID3 algorithm, was compared to that of SIMCA class modeling in classifying the binary mass spectra of 78 toxic and related compounds. The compressed mass spectra consisted of 17 masses chosen by using information theory. The expert rules verified the six main classes and two subclasses found with SIMCA class modeling. These classes were: all benzenes and all alkanes/ alkenes (alka(e)nes); nonhalobenzenes, chlorobenzenes, bromoalka(e)nes, and chloroalka(e)nes; and mono-, dichloroalka(e)nes and polychloroalka(e)nes. Training set classification accuracies obtained with the expert system were 93–100% as opposed to 62–98% for SIMCA. For 73 compounds, the expert rules gave a classification accuracy of 97–100% vs. 79–96% for SIMCA. Predictive accuracy for the four main classes was 78%. In general, fewer masses were involved with the rules than with the SIMCA models, and the rules are normally optimized with regard to minimum number of steps in the rule, not minimum number of variables. The expert rules work best with closed sets of objects where all possibilities can be included in the training sets. The expert rules represent planes partitioning the multidimensional measurement space (hypercube) into a subvolume nearest the SIMCA cylinders for an appropriate class. Overall, the performance of the expert system was very good.