Probing Compressed Sleptons at the LHC using Vector Boson Fusion Processes

TL;DR

This study explores the potential of vector boson fusion processes at the LHC to detect compressed slepton spectra, demonstrating promising significance levels for certain mass ranges with high luminosity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel feasibility analysis for slepton detection in compressed spectra using VBF topology at the LHC, highlighting the effectiveness of this approach in background reduction.

Findings

Significance of 3-6 sigma for slepton masses 115-135 GeV

Effective background suppression via VBF topology

Feasibility of detecting compressed sleptons at high luminosity

Abstract

The vector boson fusion (VBF) topology at the Large Hadron Collider at 14 TeV provides an opportunity to search for new physics. A feasibility study for the search of sleptons in a compressed mass spectra scenario is presented in the final state of two jets, one or two low $p_{T}$ non-resonant leptons, and missing energy. The presence of the VBF tagged jets and missing energy are effective in reducing Standard Model backgrounds. Using smuon production with a mass difference between $\tilde{l}_{L}$ and $\tilde{\chi}_{1}^0$ of 5-15 GeV, the significance of observing the signal events is found to be $\sim$ 3-6$\sigma$ for $m_{\tilde{l}}$=115-135 GeV, considering an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb$^{-1}$.