Search for heavy long-lived charged $R$-hadrons with the ATLAS detector in 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of proton--proton collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for heavy long-lived charged $R$-hadrons using ATLAS data at 13 TeV, setting new mass exclusion limits up to 1580 GeV for gluinos and other squarks, with no significant signals found.

Contribution

First search for heavy long-lived charged $R$-hadrons at 13 TeV with ATLAS, establishing new mass exclusion limits based on ionisation and velocity signatures.

Findings

No significant excess observed over background.

Excluded gluino masses up to 1580 GeV.

Excluded bottom and top squark masses up to 805 GeV and 890 GeV.

Abstract

A search for heavy long-lived charged $R$-hadrons is reported using a data sample corresponding to 3.2$^{-1}$ of proton--proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. The search is based on observables related to large ionisation losses and slow propagation velocities, which are signatures of heavy charged particles travelling significantly slower than the speed of light. No significant deviations from the expected background are observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are provided on the production cross section of long-lived $R$-hadrons in the mass range from 600 GeV to 2000 GeV and gluino, bottom and top squark masses are excluded up to 1580 GeV, 805 GeV and 890 GeV, respectively.