Hunting Squarks in Higgsino LSP scenarios at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores a novel search strategy for squarks at the LHC in scenarios where their decays are Yukawa suppressed, involving intermediate neutralinos and Higgs bosons, with promising sensitivity results.

Contribution

It introduces a new analysis method for detecting squarks decaying via intermediate neutralinos to Higgs bosons, expanding search strategies beyond direct LSP decays.

Findings

High sensitivity for squark detection at 14 TeV LHC with 300 fb$^{-1}$

Effective identification of events with two jets, four b-quarks, and missing energy

Potential to discover squarks in Yukawa suppressed decay scenarios

Abstract

The assumption that strongly interacting sparticles will decay directly to the LSP plus jets breaks down in situations where those decays are Yukawa suppressed. That occurs when producing the first two generations of squarks and when, at the same time, there are several electroweakinos lighter than those squarks. In this paper we analyze the signal of pair production of squarks that subsequently decay to an intermediate neutralino ($\tilde\chi_3^0$) plus jets. The neutralino will then decay to the LSP (mainly higgsino) and a Higgs. We have simulated the events and designed a discovery strategy based on a signal of two jets, four $b$-quarks and missing transverse energy. We obtain very promising values for the LHC sensitivity at 14 TeV and 300 fb$^{-1}$.