Search for supersymmetry in events with photons and low missing transverse energy in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

TL;DR

This study searches for signs of supersymmetry in proton-proton collisions by analyzing events with photons and multiple jets, setting new limits on squark masses without relying on missing energy signals.

Contribution

It presents the first comprehensive search for stealth SUSY signatures in events with photons and jets, establishing new exclusion limits on squark masses.

Findings

No significant deviation from the Standard Model observed.

Excluded squark masses below 1430 GeV at 95% confidence level.

Set model-independent cross-section limits for new physics.

Abstract

Many models of new physics, including versions of supersymmetry (SUSY), predict production of events with low missing transverse energy, electroweak gauge bosons, and many energetic final-state particles. The stealth SUSY model yields this signature while conserving R-parity by means of a new hidden sector in which SUSY is approximately conserved. The results of a general search for new physics, with no requirement on missing transverse energy, in events with two photons and four or more hadronic jets are reported. The study is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV corresponding to 4.96 inverse femtobarns of integrated luminosity collected with the CMS detector in 2011. Based on good agreement between the data and the standard model expectation, the data are used to determine model-independent cross-section limits and a limit on the squark mass in the framework of stealth SUSY. With this first study of its kind, squark masses less than 1430 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level.