Initial determination of the spins of the gluino and squarks at LHC

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel method to determine the spins of gluinos and squarks at the LHC by combining rate data and kinematic variables, bypassing the need for direct mass measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a new approach to measure superpartner spins using production rates and kinematic info without requiring precise mass determination.

Findings

Method can potentially determine gluino and squark spins early in LHC data collection.

Applicable to other new physics particles and scenarios.

Circumvents the challenge of mass measurement at the LHC.

Abstract

In principle particle spins can be measured from their production cross sections once their mass is approximately known. The method works in practice because spins are quantized and cross sections depend strongly on spins. It can be used to determine, for example, the spin of the top quark. Direct application of this method to supersymmetric theories will have to overcome the challenge of measuring mass at the LHC, which could require high statistics. In this article, we propose a method of measuring the spins of the colored superpatners by combining rate information for several channels and a set of kinematical variables, without directly measuring their masses. We argue that such a method could lead to an early determination of the spin of gluino and squarks. This method can be applied to the measurement of spin of other new physics particles and more general scenarios.