General Neutralino NLSPs at the Early LHC

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the LHC's potential to discover neutralino NLSPs in GMSB models, highlighting promising channels and current limits based on minimal spectra parameterized by NLSP and gluino masses.

Contribution

It introduces a framework using minimal spectra to evaluate LHC discovery prospects for various neutralino NLSP scenarios in GMSB models.

Findings

2010 dataset already probes new parameter space

LHC will be sensitive to electroweak production of NLSPs in future runs

Multiple signatures including photons, W/Z bosons, jets, and missing energy are promising for discovery

Abstract

Gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB) is a theoretically well-motivated framework with rich and varied collider phenomenology. In this paper, we study the Tevatron limits and LHC discovery potential for a wide class of GMSB scenarios in which the next-to-lightest superpartner (NLSP) is a promptly-decaying neutralino. These scenarios give rise to signatures involving hard photons, $W$'s, $Z$'s, jets and/or higgses, plus missing energy. In order to characterize these signatures, we define a small number of minimal spectra, in the context of General Gauge Mediation, which are parameterized by the mass of the NLSP and the gluino. Using these minimal spectra, we determine the most promising discovery channels for general neutralino NLSPs. We find that the 2010 dataset can already cover new ground with strong production for all NLSP types. With the upcoming 2011-2012 dataset, we find that the LHC will also have sensitivity to direct electroweak production of neutralino NLSPs.