Searching for light higgsinos with b-jets and missing leptons

TL;DR

This paper investigates early LHC signals of light higgsinos in supersymmetric models, emphasizing b-jet and lepton signatures to distinguish these from other SUSY scenarios.

Contribution

It provides a detailed phenomenological analysis of light higgsino models, highlighting search strategies and distinguishing features at the LHC.

Findings

Light higgsinos can be detected via hadronic SUSY searches.

Dedicated b-jet and lepton channels help differentiate models.

Evidence depends on the mass reach of squarks and gluinos.

Abstract

A recently proposed class of supersymmetric models predicts rather light and nearly mass-degenerate higgsinos, while the other superparticles are significantly heavier. In this paper we study the early LHC phenomenology of a benchmark model of this kind. If the squarks and gluinos, and in particular the lighter stop, are still light enough to be within reach, then evidence for our model can be found in hadronic SUSY searches. Moreover, with dedicated searches it will be possible to distinguish the light higgsino model from generic SUSY models with a bino LSP. Search channels with b-jets and with isolated leptons play a crucial role for model discrimination.