Search for long-lived neutral particles decaying to quark-antiquark pairs in proton-proton collisions at sqrt(s) = 8 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for long-lived neutral particles decaying into quark-antiquark pairs using CMS data at 8 TeV, setting new upper limits on production cross sections and decay lengths.

Contribution

First search to set upper limits on long-lived neutral particles decaying to quark pairs at 8 TeV with detailed constraints on decay lengths and masses.

Findings

No significant excess observed over standard model expectations.

Set upper limits on cross sections for various long-lived particle models.

Most stringent limits to date on these decay channels.

Abstract

A search is performed for long-lived massive neutral particles decaying to quark-antiquark pairs. The experimental signature is a distinctive topology of a pair of jets, originating at a secondary vertex. Events were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV. The data analyzed correspond to an integrated luminosity of 18.5 inverse femtobarns. No significant excess is observed above standard model expectations. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the production cross section of a heavy neutral scalar particle, H, in the mass range of 200 to 1000 GeV, decaying promptly into a pair of long-lived neutral X particles in the mass range of 50 to 350 GeV, each in turn decaying into a quark-antiquark pair. For X with mean proper decay lengths of 0.4 to 200 cm, the upper limits are typically 0.5-200 fb. The results are also interpreted in the context of an R-parity-violating supersymmetric model with long-lived neutralinos decaying into a quark-antiquark pair and a muon. For pair production of squarks that promptly decay to neutralinos with mean proper decay lengths of 2-40 cm, the upper limits on the cross section are typically 0.5-3 fb. The above limits are the most stringent on these channels to date.