# Closing the light gluino gap with electron-proton colliders

## TL;DR

Future electron-proton colliders like LHeC and FCC-he can effectively probe light gluinos in the 50-70 GeV range, closing existing experimental gaps with simple analysis techniques in a cleaner environment.

## Contribution

This study demonstrates that LHeC can detect light gluinos in a previously unexplored mass range using straightforward analysis methods.

## Key findings

- LHeC can close the gluino mass gap at 95% confidence level.
- Simple signal cuts are effective for detecting soft jet signals from gluino decay.
- Electron-proton colliders offer a cleaner environment for BSM searches compared to hadron colliders.

## Abstract

The future electron-proton collider proposals, LHeC and FCC-he, can deliver $\mathcal{O}$(TeV) center-of-mass energy collisions, higher than most of the proposed lepton accelerators, with $\mathcal{O}$(ab$^{-1}$) luminosity, while maintaining a much cleaner experimental environment as compared to the hadron machines. This unique capability of $e^- p$ colliders can be harnessed in probing BSM scenarios giving final states that look like hadronic noise at $pp$ machines. In the present study, we explore the prospects of detecting such a prompt signal having multiple soft jets at the LHeC. Such a signal can come from the decay of gluino in RPV or Stealth SUSY, where there exists a gap in the current experimental search with $m_{\tilde{g}} \approx 50 - 70$ GeV. We perform a simple analysis to demonstrate that, with simple signal selection cuts, we can close this gap at the LHeC at 95 % confidence level, even in the presence of a reasonable systematic error. More sophisticated signal selection strategies and detailed knowledge of the detector can be used to improve the prospects of signal detection.