Opening Up the Compressed Region of Top Squark Searches at 13 TeV LHC

Light top superpartners play a key role in stabilizing the electroweak scale in supersymmetric theories. For R-parity conserved supersymmetric models, traditional searches are not sensitive to the compressed regions. In this Letter, we propose a new method targeting this region, with top squark and neutralino mass splitting ranging from m_{t[over ˜]}-m_{χ}≳m_{t} to about 20 GeV. In particular, we focus on the signal process in which a pair of top squarks are produced in association with a hard jet, and we define a new observable R_{M} whose distribution has a peak in this compressed region. The position of the peak is closely correlated with m_{t[over ˜]}. We show that for the 13 TeV LHC with a luminosity of 3000  fb^{-1}, this analysis can extend the reach of the top squark in the compressed region to m_{t[over ˜]} around 800 GeV.

Monojetlike Searches for Top Squarks with a b Tag

The LHC searches for light compressed top squarks have resulted in considerable bounds in the case where the top squark decays to a neutralino and a charm quark. However, in the case where the top squark decays to a neutralino, a bottom quark, and two fermions via an off-shell W boson, there is currently a significant unconstrained region in the top-squark-neutralino mass plane, still allowing for top squark masses in the range 90-140 GeV. In this Letter we propose a new monojetlike search for light top squarks, optimized for the four-body decay mode, in which at least one b-tagged jet is required. We show that, by using the existing 8 TeV LHC data set, such a search would cover the entire unconstrained region. Moreover, in the process of validating our tools against an ATLAS monojet search, we show that the existing limit can be extended to exclude also top squark masses below 100 GeV.

The extent of the stop coannihilation strip

Many supersymmetric models such as the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (CMSSM) feature a strip in parameter space where the lightest neutralino [Formula: see text] is identified as the lightest supersymmetric particle, the lighter stop squark [Formula: see text] is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP), and the relic [Formula: see text] cold dark matter density is brought into the range allowed by astrophysics and cosmology by coannihilation with the lighter stop squark [Formula: see text] NLSP. We calculate the stop coannihilation strip in the CMSSM, incorporating Sommerfeld enhancement effects, and we explore the relevant phenomenological constraints and phenomenological signatures. In particular, we show that the [Formula: see text] may weigh several TeV, and its lifetime may be in the nanosecond range, features that are more general than the specific CMSSM scenarios that we study in this paper.