Search for Long-lived Charged Massive Particles at CDF

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for long-lived charged massive particles in collider data, using models of stable quarks and sleptons, finding no evidence and setting production limits.

Contribution

It introduces a novel search method for long-lived charged particles using ionization tracks and applies it to specific theoretical models, setting new experimental limits.

Findings

No excess events observed over background

Limits set on production cross-sections of long-lived particles

Discussion of future prospects for RunII

Abstract

A search for long-lived charged massive particles in CDF's Run1b data sample is presented. The search looks for highly ionizing tracks which would result from slowly moving massive particles. We search for strongly produced particles using a stable color triplet quark as a reference model, and a separate search was performed for weakly produced particles using long-lived sleptons in Gauge Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking as a reference model. No excess over background was observed, and we derive limits on the cross-sections for production of these particles. Prospects for RunII are also discussed.