Standard Model backgrounds to supersymmetry searches

TL;DR

This paper reviews Standard Model background processes relevant to supersymmetry searches, focusing on multijet and missing energy signals, and provides guidance for experimental background estimation.

Contribution

It offers a general overview of SM backgrounds for SUSY searches, emphasizing common issues in multijet and missing energy analyses, aiding future experimental efforts.

Findings

Highlights key SM background sources for SUSY signals

Identifies challenges in estimating multijet and missing energy backgrounds

Provides guidelines for experimental background determination

Abstract

This work presents a review of the Standard Model sources of backgrounds to the search of supersymmetry signals. Depending on the specific model, typical signals may include jets, leptons, and missing transverse energy due to the escaping lightest supersymmetric particle. We focus on the simplest case of multijets and missing energy, since this allows us to expose most of the issues common to other more complex cases. The review is not exhaustive, and is aimed at collecting a series of general comments and observations, to serve as guideline for the process that will lead to a complete experimental determination of size and features of such SM processes.