Different search strategies for supersymmetry have been employed by the LHC general-purpose experiments using early data. As proven by their early results, these strategies are promising, but raise the question of how well they will generalize for the future. We address this question by studying two thousand phenomenological minimal supersymmetric standard model parameter space points that come from a fit to indirect and cosmological data. We examine the 5 sigma discoverability of the points employing a typical ATLAS-type search based on missing transverse momentum (MET), a search based on an optimised MT2 cut and a combination of the two, taking into account standard model backgrounds. The discovery reach of the strategies can depend strongly on the systematic uncertainty in the background, subject to the stringency of the cuts and the details of the background simulation. By combining the MET and MT2 based strategies, with an integrated luminosity of 1 fb^-1 (10 fb^-1) at 7 TeV, 4-8% (42%) of the points are discoverable, depending on the systematic uncertainty on the background. At 14 TeV and with 10 fb^-1, 96% of the points are discoverable. While the majority of points can be discovered by both strategies at sqrt{s} = 14 TeV and with 1 fb^-1, there are some that are left undiscovered by a MET search strategy, but which are discovered by the MT2 strategy, and vice versa, therefore it is essential that one performs both in parallel. We discuss some of the factors that can make points more difficult to observe.
The combined constraints from six early Run 2 ATLAS searches for supersymmetry are interpreted in the phenomenological minimal supersymmetric extension to the Standard Model (pMSSM). Each of the searches was based on proton-proton collision data recorded in 2015 at $\sqrt{s} =13$ TeV with 3.2 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. Sensitivity to squarks of the first two generations and gluinos are evaluated using fast detector simulation. Results are presented in the 19-parameter R-parity conserving pMSSM with the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) being the neutralino. Considering 181.8k poi…
The ATLAS collaboration published supersymmetry limits based on up to about 4.7 \ifb data collected over the year 2011 from LHC runs at 7 TeV. These were mainly interpreted within restricted, particular or simplified models for supersymmetry breaking schemes or scenarios. The pMSSM is an alternative and more generic supersymmetry framework which captures broader phenomenological features. Searching for more generic conclusions from the supersymmetry limits interpretation, we update a Bayesian global fit of the pMSSM to pre-LHC data using the LHC-7 limits. The posterior distributions show the m…
The LHC has started to constrain supersymmetry-breaking parameters by setting bounds on possible colored particles at the weak scale. Moreover, constraints from Higgs physics, flavor physics, the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, as well as from searches at LEP and the Tevatron have set additional bounds on these parameters. Renormalization Group Invariants (RGIs) provide a very useful way of representing the allowed parameter space by making direct connection with the values of these parameters at the messenger scale. Using a general approach, based on the pMSSM parametrization of the so…
We study the impact of the jets and missing transverse momentum SUSY analyses of the ATLAS experiment on the phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM). We investigate sets of SUSY models with a flat and logarithmic prior in the SUSY mass scale and a mass range up to 1 and 3 TeV, respectively. These models were found previously in the study 'Supersymmetry without Prejudice'. Removing models with long-lived SUSY particles, we show that 99% of 20000 randomly generated pMSSM model points with a flat prior and 87% for a logarithmic prior are excluded by the ATLAS results. For models with squarks and gluinos be…
The signal strength of the recently discovered Higgs boson-like particle in the diphoton channel seemingly constrains physics beyond the standard model to a severe degree. However, the reported signal strength is prone to possible underestimation of uncertainties. We propose a discriminant that is relatively free of many of the theoretical uncertainties, and use this to gauge the impact on the phenomenological MSSM. A Bayesian global fit to all the pre-LHC data results in posterior distributions for the masses that are neither very restrictive, nor sufficiently prior-independent (except for th…
The recent discovery of a 125 GeV Higgs, as well as the lack of any positive findings in searches for supersymmetry, has renewed interest in both the supersymmetric Higgs sector and fine-tuning. Here, we continue our study of the phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM), discussing the light Higgs and fine-tuning within the context of two sets of previously generated pMSSM models. We find an abundance of models with experimentally-favored Higgs masses and couplings. We investigate the decay modes of the light Higgs in these models, finding strong correlations between many final states. We then examine th…
We present the update of the SModelS database with the simplified model results from CMS searches for supersymmetry at Run 2 with 36 fb$^{-1}$ of data. The constraining power of these new results is compared to that of the 8 TeV results within the context of a full model, the pMSSM. The new database, v1.1.2, is publicly available and can readily be employed for physics studies with SModelS.
We study SUSY signatures at the 7, 8 and 14 TeV LHC employing the 19-parameter, R-Parity conserving p(henomenological)MSSM, in the scenario with a neutralino LSP. Our results were obtained via a fast Monte Carlo simulation of the ATLAS SUSY analysis suite. The flexibility of this framework allows us to study a wide variety of SUSY phenomena simultaneously and to probe for weak spots in existing SUSY search analyses. We determine the ranges of the sparticle masses that are either disfavored or allowed after the searches with the 7 and 8 TeV data sets are combined. We find that natural SUSY mode…
The search for and identification of neutralino dark matter in supersymmetry requires a multi-pronged approach with important roles played by collider, direct and indirect dark matter detection experiments. In this report, we summarize the sensitivity of such searches at the 7, 8 (and eventually 14) TeV LHC, combined with those by Fermi, CTA, IceCube/DeepCore, COUPP and XENON1T, to such particles within the context of the 19-parameter p(henomenological)MSSM. This report provides an outline of the current status of our results and our expectations for future analyses.
ATLAS and CMS have been performing a large number of searches for physics beyond the Standard Model (BSM). In particular results of supersymmetry (SUSY) searches are typically interpreted in the context of simplified models. While mass limits obtained in this manner are highly model dependent, cross section upper limits (or efficiency maps) may be used to obtain constraints on generic BSM scenarios without any further event and detector simulation. This procedure has been automatised in the public tool SModelS, which first decomposes the generic scenario into its simplified model components wh…
The parameter space of the MSSM can be probed via many avenues, such as by pre- cision measurements of the couplings of the ~126 GeV Higgs boson, as well as the direct searches for SUSY partners. We examine the connection between these two collider observables at the LHC and ILC in the 19/20-parameter p(henomenological)MSSM. Within this scenario, we address two questions: (i) How will potentially null direct searches for SUSY at the LHC influence the predicted properties of the lightest SUSY Higgs boson? (ii) What can be learned about the properties of the superpartners from precision measurem…
Global fit studies performed in the pMSSM and the photon excess signal originating from the Galactic Center seem to suggest compressed electroweak supersymmetric spectra with a $\sim$100 GeV bino-like dark matter particle. We find that these scenarios are not probed by traditional electroweak supersymmetry searches at the LHC. We propose to extend the ATLAS and CMS electroweak supersymmetry searches with an improved strategy for bino-like dark matter, focusing on chargino plus next-to-lightest neutralino production, with a subsequent decay into a tri-lepton final state. We explore the sensitiv…
We begin an exploration of the physics associated with the general CP-conserving MSSM with Minimal Flavor Violation, the pMSSM. The 19 soft SUSY breaking parameters in this scenario are chosen so as to satisfy all existing experimental and theoretical constraints assuming that the WIMP is a conventional thermal relic, ie, the lightest neutralino. We scan this parameter space twice using both flat and log priors for the soft SUSY breaking mass parameters and compare the results which yield similar conclusions. Detailed constraints from both LEP and the Tevatron searches play a particularly impo…
We identify the parameter regions of the phenomenological minimal supersymmetric standard model (pMSSM) with the minimal possible fine-tuning. We show that the fine-tuning of the pMSSM is not large, nor under pressure by LHC searches. Low sbottom, stop and gluino masses turn out to be less relevant for low fine-tuning than commonly assumed. We show a link between low fine-tuning and the dark matter relic density. Fine-tuning arguments point to models with a dark matter candidate yielding the correct dark matter relic density: a bino-higgsino particle with a mass of $35-155$ GeV. Some of these …
A key research question at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the test of models of new physics. Testing if a particular parameter set of such a model is excluded by LHC data is a challenge: It requires the time consuming generation of scattering events, the simulation of the detector response, the event reconstruction, cross section calculations and analysis code to test against several hundred signal regions defined by the ATLAS and CMS experiment. In the BSM-AI project we attack this challenge with a new approach. Machine learning tools are thought to predict within a fraction of a millisec…
Run 1 of the LHC has provided three new motivations for supersymmetry: the need to stabilize the electroweak vacuum, the mass of the Higgs boson, and the fact that its couplings are Standard Model-like (so far). The prospects for discovering (and measuring) supersymmetry during future runs of the LHC are discussed in the frameworks of the constrained MSSM (CMSSM), models with non-universal soft supersymmetry-breaking contributions to Higgs masses (NUHM1,2) and the phenomenological MSSM with 10 arbitrary soft supersymmetry-breaking parameters (pMSSM10). In addition to the classic searches for m…
The discovery and exploration of Supersymmetry in a model-independent fashion will be a daunting task due to the large number of soft-breaking parameters in the MSSM. In this paper, we explore the capability of the ATLAS detector at the LHC ($\sqrt s=14$ TeV, 1 fb$^{-1}$) to find SUSY within the 19-dimensional pMSSM subspace of the MSSM using their standard transverse missing energy and long-lived particle searches that were essentially designed for mSUGRA. To this end, we employ a set of $\sim 71$k previously generated model points in the 19-dimensional parameter space that satisfy all of the…
We discuss the constraints on Supersymmetry in the Higgs sector arising from LHC searches, rare B decays and dark matter direct detection experiments. We show that constraints derived on the mass of the lightest h0 and the CP-odd A0 bosons from these searches are covering a broader fraction of the SUSY parameter space compared to searches for strongly interacting supersymmetric particle partners. We discuss the implications of a mass determination in the range 123 < Mh < 127 GeV, inspired by the intriguing hints reported by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, as well as those of a non-observatio…
We study the impact of the measurements of three sets of observables on the parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (cMSSM), its slightly general variant, the non-universal scalar model (NUSM), and some selected benchmark points of the 19-parameter phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM): ($i$) the direct measurement of the Higgs boson mass $m_h \approx 125$ GeV at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC); ($ii$) $Z$ boson decay width in the $b \bar{b}$ channel normalized to its hadronic width ($R_b$), and the forward-backward asymmetry on the $Z$-peak in the same channel $(…
As is well known, the search for and eventual identification of dark matter in supersymmetry requires a simultaneous, multi-pronged approach with important roles played by the LHC as well as both direct and indirect dark matter detection experiments. We examine the capabilities of these approaches in the 19-parameter p(henomenological)MSSM which provides a general framework for complementarity studies of neutralino dark matter. We summarize the sensitivity of dark matter searches at the 7, 8 (and eventually 14) TeV LHC, combined with those by \Fermi, CTA, IceCube/DeepCore, COUPP, LZ and XENON.…
We examine the possibility of a light (below 46 GeV) neutralino dark matter (DM) candidate within the 19-parameter phenomenological Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (pMSSM) in the light of various recent experimental results, especially from the LHC, XENON100, and Planck. We also study the extent of electroweak fine-tuning for such a light neutralino scenario in view of the null results from the searches for supersymmetry so far. Using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo likelihood analysis of the full pMSSM parameter space, we find that a neutralino DM with mass > 10 GeV can in principle still sa…
We investigate the model independent nature of the Supersymmetry search strategies at the 7 TeV LHC. To this end, we study the missing-transverse-energy-based searches developed by the ATLAS Collaboration that were essentially designed for mSUGRA. We simulate the signals for ~71k models in the 19-dimensional parameter space of the pMSSM. These models have been found to satisfy existing experimental and theoretical constraints and provide insight into general features of the MSSM without reference to a particular SUSY breaking scenario or any other assumptions at the GUT scale. Using background…
We present a re-interpretation of the recent ATLAS limits on supersymmetry in channels with jets (with and without b-tags) and missing energy, in the context of light third family squarks, while the first two squark families are inaccessible at the 7 TeV run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). In contrast to interpretations in terms of the high-scale based constrained minimal supersymmetric standard model (CMSSM), we primarily use the low-scale parametrisation of the phenomenological MSSM (pMSSM), and translate the limits in terms of physical masses of the third family squarks. Side by side, w…
Supersymmetry and extra dimensions are the two most promising candidates for new physics at the TeV scale. Supersymmetric particles or extra-dimensional effects could soon be observed at the Large Hadron Collider. We propose a simple but powerful method to discriminate the two models: the analysis of isolated leptons with high transverse momentum. Black hole events are simulated with the CATFISH black hole generator. Supersymmetry simulations use a combination of PYTHIA and ISAJET, the latter providing the mass spectrum. Our results show the measure of the dilepton invariant mass provides a st…
We study constraints on the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model from electroweak experiments. We find that the light sfermions always make the fit worse than the Standard Model, while the light chargino generally make the fit slightly better through the oblique corrections. The best overall fit to the precision measurements are found when the mass of lighter chargino is about 100 GeV and the SU(2)_L doublet sfermions are all much heavier. We find the slight improvement of the fit over the SM, where the total χ^2 of the fit decreases by about one unit.
We give an analytical calculation of solar neutrino masses and mixing at one-loop order within bilinear R-parity breaking supersymmetry, and compare our results to the exact numerical calculation. Our method is based on a systematic perturbative expansion of R-parity violating vertices to leading order. We find in general quite good agreement between approximate and full numerical calculation, but the approximate expressions are much simpler to implement. Our formalism works especially well for the case of the large mixing angle MSW solution (LMA-MSW), now strongly favoured by the recent KamLA…
Supersymmetry and Compositeness are two prevalent paradigms providing both a solution to the hierarchy problem and a motivation for a light Higgs boson state. As the latter has now been found, its dynamics can hold the key to disentangle the two theories. An open door towards the solution is found in the context of 2-Higgs Doublet Models (2HDMs), which are necessary to Supersymmetry and natural within Compositeness in order to enable Electro-Weak Symmetry Breaking. We show how 2HDM spectra of masses and couplings accessible at the Large Hadron Collider may allow one to separate the two scenari…
Future high-precision flavor experiments may discover a pattern of deviations from the standard model predictions for flavor-changing neutral current processes. One of the interesting questions that can be answered then will be whether the flavor structure of the new physics is related to that of the standard model or not. We analyze this aspect of flavor physics within a specific framework: supersymmetric models where the soft breaking terms are dominated by gauge-mediation but get non-negligible contributions from gravity-mediation. We compare the possible patterns of non-minimally flavor-vi…
We consider Dynamical Supersymmetry Breaking (DSB) in models with classical flat directions. We analyze a number of examples, and develop a systematic approach to determine if classical flat directions are stabilized in the full quantum theory, or lead to run-away behavior. In some cases pseudo-flat directions remain even at the quantum level before taking into account corrections to the Kähler potential. We show that in certain limits these corrections are calculable. In particular, we find that in the Intriligator-Thomas $SU(2)$ and its generalizations, a potential for moduli is generated. M…
Two of the most important parameters in supersymmetry are the masses of the stop and sbottom, the supersymmetric partners of the third generation quarks. A stop mass lighter than 1 TeV is favored theoretically; however, "conventional" searches based on the simplified models have not produced experimental evidence for a light stop. It is possible that the light stop evades our searches due to a compressed sparticle mass spectrum. Therefore, the searches are extended to cover a broader range of signal scenarios with different mass splittings between the stop, neutralino(s), and chargino(s). The …
Two of the most important parameters in supersymmetry are the masses of the stop and sbottom, the supersymmetric partners of the third generation quarks. A stop mass lighter than 1 TeV is favored theoretically, however, conventional searches based on the simplified models have not produced experimental evidence for a light stop. It is possible that the light stop evades our searches due to a compressed sparticle mass spectrum. Therefore, the searches are extended to cover a broader range of signal scenarios with different mass splittings between the stop, neutralino(s), and chargino(s). The se…
Perturbative supersymmetry breaking on the landscape of string vacua is expected to favor large soft terms as a power-law or log distribution, but tempered by an anthropic veto of inappropriate vacua or vacua leading to too large a value for the derived weak scale -- a violation of the atomic principle. Indeed, scans of such vacua yield a statistical prediction for light Higgs boson mass m_h~ 125 GeV with sparticles (save possibly light higgsinos) typically beyond LHC reach. In contrast, models of dynamical SUSY breaking (DSB) -- with a hidden sector gauge coupling g^2 scanned uniformly -- lea…
We compare the first results on searches for supersymmetry with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to the current and near-term performance of experiments sensitive to neutralino dark matter. We limit our study to the particular slices of parameter space of the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension to the Standard Model where CMS and ATLAS exclusion limits have been presented so far. We show where, on that parameter space, the lightest neutralino possesses a thermal relic abundance matching the value inferred by cosmological observations. We then calculate rates for, and estimate the perfo…
Resonant Di-Higgs Searches in $b\bar{b}τ^+τ^-$ at HL-LHC: Supersymmetry versus Compositeness Benchmarks
INFN, Sezione di Firenze（意大利国家核物理研究所佛罗伦萨分部）；Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia, Università di Firenze（佛罗伦萨大学物理与天文学系）；Dipartimento di Fisica, Università della Calabria（卡拉布里亚大学物理系）；INFN, Gruppo Collegato di Cosenza（意大利国家核物理研究所科森扎联合小组）；School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Southampton（南安普顿大学物理与天文学院）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University（乌普萨拉大学物理与天文学院）
In this paper, we investigate sizeable interference effects between a heavy charged Higgs boson signal produced via $gg\to t\bar b H^-$ (+ c.c.) followed by the decay $H^-\to b\bar t$ (+ c.c.) and the irreducible background given by $gg\to t\bar t b \bar b$ topologies at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We show how such effects could spoil current $H^\pm$ searches where signal and background are normally treated separately. The reason for this is that a heavy charged Higgs boson can have a large total width, in turn enabling such interferences, altogether leading to very significant alteration…
We study constraints on the supersymmetric standard model from the updated electroweak precision measurements --- the Z-pole experiments and the $W$-boson mass measurements. The supersymmetric-particle contributions to the universal gauge-boson-propagator corrections are parametrized by the three oblique parameters Sz, Tz and mw. The oblique corrections, the Zqq and Zll vertex corrections, and the vertex and box corrections to the μ-decay width are separately studied in detail. We first study individual contribution from the four sectors of the model, the squarks, the sleptons, the supersymmet…
We re-evaluate prospects for supersymmetry at the proposed International Linear $e^+e^-$ Collider (ILC) in light of the first year of serious data taking at LHC with $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $\sim 5$ fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collisions (LHC7). Strong new limits from LHC SUSY searches, along with a hint of a Higgs boson signal around $m_h\sim 125$ GeV, suggest a paradigm shift from previously popular models to ones with new and compelling signatures. We present a variety of new ILC benchmark models, including: natural SUSY, hidden SUSY, NUHM2 with low $m_A$, non-universal gaugino mass (NUGM) model, pMSSM,…
We study sensitivity of low-energy experiments to the scale of supersymmetry breaking $\sqrt{F}$ in models with light sgoldstinos --- superpartners of goldstino. The limits on $\sqrt{F}$ may be obtained from direct and indirect measurements of sgoldstino coupling to photons, leptons, mesons and nucleons. There are three sources of constraints: ($i$) astrophysics and cosmology; ($ii$) precision laboratory experiments at low energies; ($iii$) rare decays. We discuss only processes with real sgoldstinos. For sgoldstino lighter than a few MeV and superpartner masses of the order of electroweak sca…
We assess how different ATLAS and CMS searches for supersymmetry in the $t\bar t + E_T^{\rm miss}$ final state at Run 1 of the LHC constrain scenarios with a fermionic top partner and a dark matter candidate. We find that the efficiencies of these searches in all-hadronic, 1-lepton and 2-lepton channels are quite similar for scalar and fermionic top partners. Therefore, in general, efficiency maps for stop-neutralino simplified models can also be applied to fermionic top-partner models, provided the narrow width approximation holds in the latter. Owing to the much higher production cross-secti…
Monojet searches using Effective Field Theory (EFT) operators are usually interpreted as a robust and model independent constraint on direct detection (DD) scattering cross-sections. At the same time, a mediator particle must be present to produce the dark matter (DM) at the LHC. This mediator particle may be produced on shell, so that direct searches for the mediating particle can constrain the effective operator being applied to monojet constraints. In this first paper, we do a case study on t-channel models in monojet searches, where the (Standard Model singlet) DM is pair produced via a t-…
We study the $e^{\pm}μ^{\mp} + E^{miss}_T$ and $l^+l^- + E^{miss}_T$ signatures $(l = e, μ)$ for different values of $\tanβ$ in the mSUGRA model. With $\tanβ$ rising, we observe a characteristic change in the shape of dilepton mass spectra in $l^+l^- + E^{miss}_T $ versus $e^{\pm}μ^{\mp}$ final states reflecting the decrease of $\tildeχ^0_2 \to l^+l^- \tilde{χ^0_1}$ branching ratio. We also study the non mSUGRA modifications of the CMS test point LM1 with arbitrary relations among gaugino and higgsino masses. For such modifications of the mSUGRA test point LM1 the number of lepton events depen…
We propose a search for $B$ meson decays to a baryon plus missing energy at the Belle II experiment to probe supersymmetry with a GeV-scale lightest neutralino ${\tildeχ_1^0}$ and $R$-parity violation (RPV). We perform analytic computations of the signal branching fractions in the framework of effective field theory, with a single nonzero RPV operator $λ''_{ij3}\bar{U}_{i}^c\bar{D}_{j}^c\bar{D}_3^c$, where $i,j=1,2$. The hadronic form factors are calculated using an SU(3) phenomenological Lagrangian approach for the proton, as well as several hyperons and charmed baryons. Since the decay of th…
