Search for direct pair production of a chargino and a neutralino decaying to the 125 GeV Higgs boson in $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper searches for supersymmetric particles, specifically charginos and neutralinos, decaying to the Higgs boson in 8 TeV proton-proton collisions, setting limits based on ATLAS data.

Contribution

It presents the first search for chargino-neutralino production with Higgs decay modes using 8 TeV LHC data, extending previous supersymmetry constraints.

Findings

No significant excess observed over Standard Model predictions.

Limits set on chargino and neutralino masses in simplified SUSY models.

Analysis covers multiple Higgs decay channels with large missing energy.

Abstract

A search is presented for the direct pair production of a chargino and a neutralino $pp\to\tilde{\chi}^\pm_1\tilde{\chi}^0_2$, where the chargino decays to the lightest neutralino and the $W$ boson, $\tilde{\chi}^\pm_1 \to \tilde{\chi}^0_1 (W^{\pm}\to\ell^{\pm}\nu)$, while the neutralino decays to the lightest neutralino and the 125 GeV Higgs boson, $\tilde{\chi}^0_2 \to \tilde{\chi}^0_1 (h\to bb/\gamma\gamma/\ell^{\pm}\nu qq)$. The final states considered for the search have large missing transverse momentum, an isolated electron or muon, and one of the following: either two jets identified as originating from bottom quarks, or two photons, or a second electron or muon with the same electric charge. The analysis is based on 20.3 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV proton-proton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with the Standard Model expectations, and limits are set in the context of a simplified supersymmetric model.