Search for the pair production of scalar top quarks in the acoplanar charm jet topology in p pbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for scalar top quark pair production in proton-antiproton collisions, focusing on a specific decay mode, and sets new exclusion limits on their masses based on the data collected.

Contribution

It introduces a new search for scalar top quarks in a specific decay channel, extending previous exclusion limits using Tevatron data.

Findings

No evidence of scalar top quark production was observed.

A 95% confidence level exclusion domain in the stop and chi mass plane was established.

The results extend the exclusion limits beyond previous experiments.

Abstract

A search for the pair production of scalar top quarks, or stops, has been performed in 360 pb-1 of data from p pbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV, collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The stop decay mode considered is stop into c chi, where chi is the lightest supersymmetric particle. The topology analyzed therefore consists of a pair of acoplanar heavy-flavor jets with missing transverse energy. The data and standard model expectation are in agreement, and a 95% C.L. exclusion domain in the stop and chi mass plane has been determined, extending the domain excluded by previous experiments.