Automated third generation squark production to next-to-leading order

TL;DR

This paper provides automated next-to-leading order predictions for heavy flavor squark production at the LHC, focusing on theoretical uncertainties and the impact of bottom parton densities in various MSSM scenarios.

Contribution

It introduces fully automated NLO calculations for third-generation squark production, including stop-chargino associated production, with detailed uncertainty analysis.

Findings

Associated production rates can reach tens of femtobarns.

Scale dependence alone does not fully estimate theoretical uncertainties.

Comparison with multi-jet merging and bottom parton densities impacts.

Abstract

If light--flavor squarks and gluinos are indeed heavy and chargino pair production is plagued with overwhelming backgrounds, pair production and associated production of stops and charginos will become the key signatures in the upcoming LHC runs. We present fully automated next-to-leading order predictions for heavy flavor squark production at the LHC, including stop-chargino associated production, based on MadGolem. We compute the total and differential NLO rates for a variety of MSSM scenarios with a light third generation. We focus on theoretical uncertainties on differential rates, including a comparison to multi-jet merging and the impact of bottom parton densities for stop-chargino associated production. We find that for the associated production channel the rates can reach tens of femtobarns, but the scale dependence does not provide a conservative estimate of the theoretical uncertainties.