Scalar Leptons in Folded Supersymmetry

TL;DR

This paper explores the phenomenology of scalar leptons in folded supersymmetry, analyzing their mass bounds, decay properties, and collider signatures, especially in light of LHC data at 8 TeV and projections at 13 TeV.

Contribution

It provides a detailed study of scalar leptons in folded supersymmetry, including mass bounds, decay behaviors, and collider signals, extending the understanding of these particles in five-dimensional models.

Findings

Sleptons can have weak scale masses consistent with LHC bounds.

Stable sleptons lead to bounds above 1 TeV on folded stops, causing tuning.

Additional SUSY breaking sources result in faster decays and distinctive collider signatures.

Abstract

Folded supersymmetry is a natural theory of the electroweak scale in which the scalar top partner responsible for canceling the ultraviolet sensitivity of the Higgs mass at one loop carries no color. As a result, bounds on naturalness on these theories are more relaxed than in typical supersymmetric models, since collider bounds on top partners are less stringent. Here we consider the lepton sector of these theories. We show that a natural realization in a five-dimensional completion requires the existence of scalar leptons with weak scale masses and study their phenomenology. We derive bounds on the masses of these sleptons from the LHC data at $\sqrt{s}=8~$TeV and study the sensitivity of the $\sqrt{s}=13~$TeV run for various integrated luminosities. When supersymmetry is broken exclusively by Scherk-Schwarz boundary conditions the sleptons are stable on collider scales. This leads to bounds on the folded sleptons that translate into masses above $1~$TeV for the folded stops resulting in tuning. When additional sources of supersymmetry breaking, which may be necessary to ensure electroweak symmetry breaking, are allowed the bounds on stops are mostly avoided. On the other hand, these terms lead to faster slepton decays resulting in interesting signals with highly displaced vertices and multi-jet final states inside the detectors.