Squark flavour violation and naturalness at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores how mixing between right-handed top and charm squarks in supersymmetric models can weaken experimental bounds and reduce fine-tuning, with potential for detection using current LHC data.

Contribution

It identifies a previously unconstrained squark mixing scenario that impacts naturalness and collider search strategies in supersymmetry.

Findings

Right-handed top-charm squark mixing weakens current experimental bounds.

Such mixing can be tested with existing 8 TeV LHC data.

The scenario offers a pathway to reduced fine-tuning in supersymmetric models.

Abstract

While rare meson decays place stringent constraints on much of the flavour violating parameter space of supersymmetric models, the mixing between right-handed top and charm squarks is so far unconstrained by the available data. Such mixing has in fact a very appealing phenomenology: it significantly weakens the current experimental bounds from direct squark searches and leads to a modest reduction of fine-tuning. The scenario can be tested already with the present 8 TeV data set by looking for the flavour violating final state t anti-t + missing E_T, thanks to the large squark pair production cross section.