Search for Long-lived Charged Massive Particles in anti-p p Collisions at s**1/2 = 1.8 TeV

TL;DR

This study searches for long-lived charged massive particles in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.8 TeV, using ionization and penetration signatures, but finds no evidence and sets upper limits on production cross sections.

Contribution

First search for long-lived charged massive particles at Tevatron energies using ionization and penetration signatures with new cross section limits.

Findings

No excess over background observed.

Cross section limits of order 1 pb set for stable quark and scalar lepton models.

Method demonstrates effective discrimination of long-lived particles from background.

Abstract

We report a search for production of long-lived charged massive particles in a data sample of 90 pb^{-1} of \sqrt{s} = 1.8 TeV p anti-p collisions recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). The search uses the muon-like penetration and anomalously high ionization energy loss signature expected for such a particle to discriminate it from backgrounds. The data is found to agree with background expectations, and cross section limits of \cal{O} (1) pb are derived using two reference models, a stable quark and a stable scalar lepton.