Probing supersymmetry with recursive jigsaw reconstruction

Abstract

[Please note we are unable to replicate some of the symbols and equations appearing in this abstract. Please see the thesis abstract for symbols and equations]. This thesis describes Recursive Jigsaw Reconstruction, a technique for analysing final state topologies with weakly interacting particles at collider experiments. Constructed to extract information from indirect hints of dark matter candidates, bases of observables are used for proposed analyses of proton-proton collision events at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) focused on probing supersymmetry. This dissertation presents a number of phenomenological studies targeting potential pair-production of supersymmetric partners of the Standard Model particles assuming a centre-of-mass collision energy of the LHC consistent with the designed energy of 14 TeV, for various luminosity scenarios. The first is a partially inclusive study dedicated to probe compressed scenarios concerning the production of a pair of gluinos and the first two generations of squarks decaying to hadronic jets and neutralinos

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is considered to be the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). Putative gluinos would be discovered above 1 TeV with a LSP mass up to 800 GeV, while squarks would be excluded up to 900 GeV for an integrated luminosity of 100 fb⁻¹ at LHC14. Similar compressed investigations are dedicated to probe associated neutralino-chargino production events with initial state radiation focusing on final states with three leptons

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and potential exclusion limits are presented for the chargino pair-production for a data sample of 3 ab⁻¹. Other studies are focused on the production of light scalar bottoms either directly or mediated by gluinos. The gluino-mediated sbottom pair-production in final states with four b-jets and missing transverse momentum

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is investigated for several values of the masses of the three superparticles. Gluinos could be discovered above 2 TeV and neutralinos up to 500 GeV almost independently of the scalar bottom mass with an integrated luminosity of 50 fb⁻¹. The results of the proposed analysis for the direct production of light sbottoms in final states with two b-jets and missing transverse momentum are presented in the

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plane for an integrated luminosity of 50 fb⁻¹. Assuming a systematic uncertainty of the 20% for the SM background, superpartner of the bottom quark would be excluded at the 95% CL with masses above 1:2 TeV and LSP with masses up to 400 GeV, while in the compressed regime, results demonstrate the third generation scalar would be excluded with masses above 800 GeV, well beyond the current experimental limit.