No Arabic abstract
If new physics is found at the LHC (and the ILC) the reconstruction of the underlying theory should not be biased by assumptions about high--scale models. For the mapping of many measurements onto high--dimensional parameter spaces we introduce SFitter with its new weighted Markov chain technique. SFitter constructs an exclusive likelihood map, determines the best--fitting parameter point and produces a ranked list of the most likely parameter points. Using the example of the TeV--scale supersymmetric Lagrangian we show how a high--dimensional likelihood map will generally include degeneracies and strong correlations. SFitter allows us to study such model--parameter spaces employing Bayesian as well as frequentist constructions. We illustrate in detail how it should be possible to analyze high--dimensional new--physics parameter spaces like the TeV--scale MSSM at the LHC. A combination of LHC and ILC measurements might well be able to completely cover highly complex TeV--scale parameter spaces.
With sufficient data, Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments can constrain the selectron-smuon mass splitting through differences in the di-electron and di-muon edges from supersymmetry (SUSY) cascade decays. We study the sensitivity of the LHC to this mass splitting, which within mSUGRA may be constrained down to O(10^{-4}) for 30 fb^{-1} of integrated luminosity. Over substantial regions of SUSY breaking parameter space the fractional edge splitting can be significantly enhanced over the fractional mass splitting. Within models where the selectron and smuon are constrained to be universal at a high scale, edge splittings up to a few percent may be induced by renormalisation group effects and may be significantly discriminated from zero. The edge splitting provides important information about high-scale SUSY breaking terms and should be included in any fit of LHC data to high-scale models.
We consider the phenomenology of a class of gauge-mediated supersymmetry (SUSY) breaking (GMSB) models at a e+e- Linear Collider (LC) with c.o.m. energy up to 500 GeV. In particular, we refer to a high-luminosity (L ~ 3 x 10^34 cm^-2 s^-1) machine, and use detailed simulation tools for a proposed detector. Among the GMSB-model building options, we define a simple framework and outline its predictions at the LC, under the assumption that no SUSY signal is detected at LEP or Tevatron. Our focus is on the case where a neutralino (N1) is the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (NLSP), for which we determine the relevant regions of the GMSB parameter space. Many observables are calculated and discussed, including production cross sections, NLSP decay widths, branching ratios and distributions, for dominant and rare channels. We sketch how to extract the messenger and electroweak scale model parameters from a spectrum measured via, e.g. threshold-scanning techniques. Several experimental methods to measure the NLSP mass and lifetime are proposed and simulated in detail. We show that these methods can cover most of the lifetime range allowed by perturbativity requirements and suggested by cosmology in GMSB models. Also, they are relevant for any general low-energy SUSY breaking scenario. Values of c*tau_N1 as short as 10s of microns and as long as 10s of metres can be measured with errors at the level of 10% or better after one year of LC running with high luminosity. We discuss how to determine a narrow range (<~ 5%) for the fundamental SUSY breaking scale sqrt(F), based on the measured m_N1, c*tau_N1. Finally, we suggest how to optimise the LC detector performance for this purpose.
The realization that supersymmetry (SUSY), if softly broken at the weak scale, can stabilize the Higgs sector led many authors to explore the role it may play in particle physics. It was widely anticipated that superpartners would reveal themselves once the TeV scale was probed in high energy collisions. Experiments at the LHC have not yet revealed any sign for direct production of superpartners, or for any other physics beyond the Standard Model. This has led to some authors to question whether weak scale SUSY has a role to play in stabilizing the Higgs sector. We show that SUSY models with just the minimal particle content may well be consistent with data and simultaneously serve to stabilize the Higgs sector, if model parameters generally regarded as independent turn out to be appropriately correlated. In our view, it would be premature to ignore this possibility, given that we do not understand the underlying mechanism of SUSY breaking. We advocate using the electroweak scale quantity, $delew$, to determine whether a given SUSY spectrum might arise from a theory with low fine-tuning, even when the parameters correlations mentioned above are present. We find that all such models contain light higgsinos and that this leads to the possibility of new strategies for searching for SUSY. We discuss phenomenological implications of these models for SUSY searches at the LHC and its luminosity and energy upgrades, as well as at future electron-positron colliders. We conclude that natural SUSY, defined as no worse than a part in 30 fine-tuning, will not escape detection at a $pp$ collider operating at 27~TeV and an integrated luminosity of 15~ab$^{-1}$, or at an electron-positron collider with a centre-of-mass energy of 600~GeV.
{it Why continue looking for supersymmetry?} Over and above the aesthetic and theoretical motivations from string theory, there are several longstanding phenomenological motivations for TeV-scale supersymmetry such as the electroweak scale, and the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) as cold dark matter. Run~1 of the LHC has actually provided three extra motivations, namely the stabilization of the electroweak vacuum, and successful predictions for the Higgs mass and couplings. {it How to look for it?} There are several examples of emergent supersymmetry, the most recent being on the surfaces of topological insulators, and some sort of effective supersymmetry could be useful for boosting the power of laser arrays. At the LHC, attention is moving towards signatures that had previously been neglected, such as long-lived charged particles - which might be an opportunity for the MoEDAL experiment.
Current analyses of the LHC data put stringent bounds on strongly interacting supersymmetric particles, restricting the masses of squarks and gluinos to be above the TeV scale. However, the supersymmetric electroweak sector is poorly constrained. In this article we explore the consistency of possible LHC missing energy signals with the broader phenomenological structure of the electroweak sector in low energy supersymmetry models. As an example, we focus on the newly developed Recursive Jigsaw Reconstruction analysis by ATLAS, which reports interesting event excesses in channels containing di-lepton and tri-lepton final states plus missing energy. We show that it is not difficult to obtain compatibility of these LHC data with the observed dark matter relic density, the bounds from dark matter direct detection experiments, and the measured anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. We provide analytical expressions which can be used to understand the range of gaugino masses, the value of the Higgsino mass parameter, the heavy Higgs spectrum, the ratio of the Higgs vacuum expectation values $tan beta$, and the slepton spectrum obtained in our numerical analysis of these observables.