Expected Performance of the ATLAS Detector in GMSB Models with Tau Final States

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the ATLAS detector's expected performance in GMSB models with tau final states at the LHC, focusing on detection capabilities, discovery potential, and mass measurement techniques for supersymmetric particles.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the ATLAS detector's sensitivity to GMSB scenarios with a stau NLSP at 10 TeV, including optimized event selection and mass measurement strategies.

Findings

Optimized cut-based selection enhances detection sensitivity.

Discovery reach depends on integrated luminosity and GMSB parameters.

Invariant mass of tau pairs can be used to measure supersymmetric particle masses.

Abstract

Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking (GMSB) models provide a possible mechanism to mediate Supersymmetry to the visible sector. In these models the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) is usually the gravitino, while the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle (NLSP) is either a neutralino or a slepton. In the case of a stau NLSP events with large missing transverse energy, highly energetic jets and up to four $\tau$ leptons are expected in $pp$-collisions at the LHC. A study of the expected performance of the ATLAS detector in GMSB scenarios with a stau NLSP for a LHC center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 10 TeV is presented. A cut-based selection has been optimised using a typical GMSB scenario and a scan of the GMSB parameter space has been performed to determine the discovery reach as a function of the integrated luminosity. In addition, the invariant mass distribution of two $\tau$ leptons has been used to study the measurement of masses of supersymmetric particles with larger event samples.