Surviving scenario of stop decays for ATLAS $\ell+jets+E^{miss}_T$ search

TL;DR

This paper investigates the ATLAS $ ext{stop}$ search excess by exploring light stop pair production in the MSSM, finding that certain models with light stops and higgsinos can explain the data without conflicting with other searches.

Contribution

It proposes an extended MSSM scenario with light stops and higgsinos that can account for the ATLAS excess at a 2$\sigma$ level, expanding previous simple models.

Findings

Simple stop decay models are disfavored.

Extended models with light stops and higgsinos can explain the excess.

The scenario aligns with natural SUSY expectations.

Abstract

Recently ATLAS reported a $3.3\sigma$ excess in the stop search with $\ell+jets+E_T^{miss}$ channel. We try to interpret the signal by a light stop pair production in the MSSM. We find: (1) simple models where stop decays into a higgsino or a bino are not favored. (2) an extension of them can explain the data at $2\sigma$ level without conflicting with the other search channels. A surviving possibility includes a light stop and a light higgsino, which is expected in a natural SUSY scenario.