Decay-frame Kinematics (DK) has previously been introduced as a technique to reconstruct neutralino masses from their three-body decays to leptons. This work is an extension to the case of two-body decays through on-shell sleptons, with Monte Carlo simulation of LHC collisions demonstrating reconstruction of neutralino masses for the SPS1a benchmark point.
The addition of the QCD axion to the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) not only solves the strong CP problem but also modifies the dark sector with new dark matter candidates. While SUSY axion phenomenology is usually restricted to searches for the axion itself or searches for the ordinary SUSY particles, this work focuses on scenarios where the axions superpartner, the axino, may be detectable at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the decays of neutralinos displaced from the primary vertex. In particular, we focus on the KSVZ axino within the hadronic axion window. The decay length of neutralinos in this scenario easily fits the ATLAS detector for SUSY spectra expected to be testable at the 14 TeV LHC. We compare this signature of displaced decays to axinos to other well motivated scenarios containing a long lived neutralino which decays inside the detector. These alternative scenarios can in some cases very closely mimic the expected axino signature, and the degree to which they are distinguishable is discussed. We also briefly comment on the cosmological viability of such a scenario.
We investigate the current status of the light neutralino dark matter scenario within the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) taking into account latest results from the LHC. A discussion of the relevant constraints, in particular from the dark matter relic abundance, leads us to a manageable simplified model defined by a subset of MSSM parameters. Within this simplified model we reinterpret a recent search for electroweak supersymmetric particle production based on a signature including multi-taus plus missing transverse momentum performed by the ATLAS collaboration. In this way we derive stringent constraints on the light neutralino parameter space. In combination with further experimental information from the LHC, such as dark matter searches in the monojet channel and constraints on invisible Higgs decays, we obtain a lower bound on the lightest neutralino mass of about 24 GeV. This limit is stronger than any current limit set by underground direct dark matter searches or indirect detection experiments. With a mild improvement of the sensitivity of the multi-tau search, light neutralino dark matter can be fully tested up to about 30 GeV.
Recently there has been much interest in the use of single-jet mass and jet substructure to identify boosted particles decaying hadronically at the LHC. We develop these ideas to address the challenging case of a neutralino decaying to three quarks in models with baryonic violation of R-parity. These decays have previously been found to be swamped by QCD backgrounds. We demonstrate for the first time that such a decay might be observed directly at the LHC with high significance, by exploiting characteristics of the scales at which its composite jet breaks up into subjets.
We consider cosmological consequences of a heavy axino, decaying to the neutralino in R-parity conserving models. The importance and influence of the axino decay on the resultant abundance of neutralino dark matter depends on the lifetime and the energy density of axino. For a high reheating temperature after inflation, copiously produced axinos dominate the energy density of the universe and its decay produces a large amount of entropy. As a bonus, we obtain that the upper bound on the reheating temperature after inflation via gravitino decay can be moderated, because the entropy production by the axino decay more or less dilutes the gravitinos.
The $R$-parity violating decays of Bino neutralino LSPs are analyzed within the context of the $B-L$ MSSM heterotic standard model. These LSPs correspond to statistically determined initial soft supersymmetry breaking parameters which, when evolved using the renormalization group equations, lead to an effective theory satisfying all phenomenological requirements; including the observed electroweak vector boson masses and the Higgs mass. The explicit RPV decay channels of these LSPs into standard model particles, the analytic and numerical decay rates and the associated branching ratios are presented. The analysis of these quantities breaks into two separate calculations; first, for Bino neutralino LSPs with mass larger than $M_{W^{pm}}$ and, second, when the Bino neutralino mass is smaller than the electroweak scale. The RPV decay processes in both of these regions is analyzed in detail. The decay lengths of these RPV interactions are discussed. It is shown that for heavy Bino neutralino LSPs the vast majority of these decays are prompt, although a small, but calculable, number correspond to displaced decays of various lengths. The situation is reversed for light Bino LSPs, only a small number of which can RPV decay promptly. The relation of these results to the neutrino hierarchy--either normal or inverted--is discussed in detail.