The Quirky Collider Signals of Folded Supersymmetry

TL;DR

This paper explores unique collider signals from scalar quirks in folded supersymmetry, focusing on bound state formation and decay channels, and assesses the LHC's potential to detect these signals.

Contribution

It introduces a novel collider signature involving squirkonium bound states and provides detailed calculations of decay channels and discovery prospects at the LHC.

Findings

Squirkonium forms highly excited bound states due to new strong dynamics.

The dominant decay channel near the ground state is W+photon.

LHC can potentially discover squirks with identifiable mass peaks.

Abstract

We investigate the collider signals associated with scalar quirks ("squirks") in folded supersymmetric models. As opposed to regular superpartners in supersymmetric models these particles are uncolored, but are instead charged under a new confining group, leading to radically different collider signals. Due to the new strong dynamics, squirks that are pair produced do not hadronize separately, but rather form a highly excited bound state. The excited ``squirkonium'' loses energy to radiation before annihilating back into Standard Model particles. We calculate the branching fractions into various channels for this process, which is prompt on collider time-scales. The most promising annihilation channel for discovery is W+photon which dominates for squirkonium near its ground state. We demonstrate the feasibility of the LHC search, showing that the mass peak is visible above the SM continuum background and estimate the discovery reach.