No Arabic abstract
We investigate multilepton LHC signals arising from electroweak processes involving sleptons. We consider the framework of general gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking, focusing on models where the low mass region of the superpartner spectrum consists of the three generations of charged sleptons and the nearly massless gravitino. We demonstrate how such models can provide an explanation for the anomalous four lepton events recently observed by the CMS collaboration, while satisfying other existing experimental constraints. The best fit to the CMS data is obtained for a selectron/smuon mass of around 145 GeV and a stau mass of around 90 GeV. These models also give rise to final states with more than four leptons, offering alternative channels in which they can be probed and we estimate the corresponding production rates at the LHC.
Motivated by the absence of any clear signal of physics beyond the Standard Model at the LHC after Run I, we discuss one possible slight hint of new physics and one non-minimal extension of the Standard Model. In the first part we provide a tentative explanation of a small excess of multilepton events, observed by the CMS collaboration, by means of a simplified model of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking. In the second part we discuss how the standard phenomenology of gauge mediation can be significantly modified if one makes the non-minimal assumption that supersymmetry is broken in more than one hidden sector. Such multiple hidden sector models involve light neutral fermions called pseudo-goldstini and, due to the extra decay steps they induce, where soft photons are emitted, these models give rise to multiphoton plus missing energy signatures. We discuss why the existing LHC searches are poorly sensitive to these model and we propose new searches designed to probe them.
We introduce new mechanisms for the communication of supersymmetry breaking via gauge interactions. These models do not require complicated dynamics to induce a nonvanishing F term for a singlet. The first class of models communicates supersymmetry breaking to the visible sector through a ``mediator field that transforms under both a messenger gauge group of the dynamical supersymmetry breaking sector and the standard model gauge group. This model has distinctive phenomenology; in particular, the scalar superpartners should be heavier by at least an order of magnitude than the gaugino superpartners. The second class of models has phenomenology more similar to the ``standard messenger sectors. A singlet is incorporated, but the model does not require complicated mechanisms to generate a singlet F term. The role of the singlet is to couple fields from the dynamical symmetry breaking sector to fields transforming under the standard model gauge group. We also mention a potential solution to the $mu$ problem.
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.
We present an extensive analysis of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking models with minimal and non-minimal flavour violation. We first demonstrate that low-energy, precision electroweak, and cosmological constraints exclude large collider-friendly regions of the minimal parameter space. We then discuss various possibilities how flavour violation, although naturally suppressed, may still occur in gauge-mediation models. The introduction of non-minimal flavour violation at the electroweak scale is shown to relax the stringent experimental constraints, so that benchmark points, that are also cosmologically viable, can be defined and their phenomenology, i.e. squark and gaugino production cross sections with flavour violation, at the LHC can be studied.
We review the motivation for Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking and discuss some recent advances.