Large Jet Multiplicities and New Physics at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores how high jet multiplicities and missing transverse energy can be used to detect new physics at the LHC, demonstrating improved discovery potential over other methods.

Contribution

It introduces a search strategy based on jet multiplicity and missing energy, showing its effectiveness in a simplified supersymmetric model for new physics detection.

Findings

Strategy often surpasses other methods in discovery reach

Effective in scenarios with multiple jets and missing energy

Applicable to supersymmetric models with gluinos, stops, and neutralinos

Abstract

A broad class of scenarios for new physics involving additional strongly-interacting fields generically predicts signatures at hadron colliders which consist solely of large numbers of jets and substantial missing transverse energy. In this work, we investigate the prospects for discovery in such scenarios using a search strategy in which jet multiplicity and missing transverse energy are employed as the primary criteria for distinguishing signal from background. We examine the discovery reach this strategy affords in an example theory (a simplified supersymmetric model whose low-energy spectrum consists of a gluino, a light stop, and a light neutralino) and demonstrate that it frequently exceeds the reach obtained via other, alternative strategies.