Search for direct stop pair production with the ATLAS detector

TL;DR

This paper reports on searches for direct stop pair production in compressed mass spectra scenarios at 13 TeV using the ATLAS detector, emphasizing new soft b-hadron tagging techniques to identify low-momentum decay products.

Contribution

It introduces new developments in soft b-hadron tagging techniques for improved detection of compressed stop signals at the LHC.

Findings

No significant excess observed over the Standard Model background.

New tagging techniques enhance sensitivity to low-momentum decay products.

Results set limits on stop masses in compressed spectra scenarios.

Abstract

Supersymmetry, which extends the Standard Model (SM) by introducing supersymmetric partners for the SM particles, can provide an elegant solution to the hierarchy problem. One of the most important parameters in supersymmetry is the mass of the supersymmetric partner to the top quark, referred to as stop. In the absence of the stop signature in the previous searches at the LHC, compressed stop searches in which the mass of the stop is close to the mass of the lightest neutralino become more important. In scenarios with compressed mass spectra, the momentum transfer to the decay products of the stop may be small, leading to decay products with transverse momenta of only a few GeV. Hence, the identification and reconstruction of those "soft" objects can play a crucial role in the searches. In this article, recent results from the compressed stop searches in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ =13 TeV with the ATLAS detector and new developments for soft b-hadron tagging techniques are presented.