Determining SUSY parameters in chargino pair-production in e^+e^- collisions

In most supersymmetric theories, charginos , mixtures of charged color-neutral gauginos and higgsinos, belong to the class of the lightest supersymmetric particles. They are easy to observe at colliders. By measuring the total cross sections and the left–right asymmetries with polarized electron beams in , the chargino masses and the gaugino–higgsino mixing angles can be determined. From these observables the fundamental SUSY parameters can be derived: the SU(2) gaugino mass , the modulus and of the higgsino mass parameter, and , the ratio of the vacuum expectation values of the two neutral Higgs doublet fields. The solutions are unique; the CP-violating phase can be determined uniquely by analyzing effects due to the normal polarization of the charginos. Received: 3 December 1998 / Published online: 27 April 1999     

Analysis of the neutralino system in supersymmetric theories

Charginos and neutralinos in supersymmetric theories can be produced copiously at colliders and their properties can be measured with high accuracy. Consecutively to the chargino system, in which the SU(2) gaugino parameter , the higgsino mass parameter and can be determined, the remaining fundamental supersymmetry parameter in the gaugino/higgsino sector of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model, the U(1) gaugino mass , can be analyzed in the neutralino system, including its modulus and its phase in CP–noninvariant theories. The CP properties of the neutralino system are characterized by unitarity quadrangles. Analytical solutions for the neutralino mass eigenvalues and the mixing matrix are presented for CP–noninvariant theories in general. They can be written in compact form for large supersymmetric mass parameters. The closure of the neutralino and chargino systems can be studied by exploiting sum rules for the pair-production processes in collisions. Thus the picture of the non–colored gaugino and higgsino complex in supersymmetric theories can comprehensively be reconstructed in these experiments. Received: 24 August 2001 / Published online: 21 November 2001     

Chargino and neutralino decays revisited

We perform a comprehensive analysis of the decays of charginos and neutralinos in the minimal supersymmetric standard model where the neutralino is assumed to be the lightest supersymmetric particle. We focus, in particular, on the three-body decays of the next-to-lightest neutralino and the lightest chargino into the lightest neutralino and fermion–antifermion pairs and include vector boson, Higgs boson and sfermion exchange diagrams, where in the latter contribution the full mixing in the third generation is included. The radiative corrections to the heavy fermion and SUSY particle masses will also be taken into account. We present complete analytical formulae for the Dalitz densities and the integrated partial decay widths in the massless fermion case, as well as the expressions of the differential decay widths including the masses of the final fermions and the polarization of the decaying charginos and neutralinos. We then discuss these decay modes, in particular in scenarios where the parameter is large and in models without universal gaugino masses at the grand unification scale, where some new decay channels, such as decays into gluinos and pairs, open up. Received: 12 April 2001 / Published online: 8 June 2001     

Search for chargino and neutralino production at \sqrt{s} = 189 GeV at LEP

A search for charginos and neutralinos, predicted by supersymmetric theories, is performed using a data sample of 182.1 pb taken at a centre-of-mass energy of 189 GeV with the OPAL detector at LEP. No evidence for chargino or neutralino production is found. Upper limits on chargino and neutralino pair production (, ) cross-sections are obtained as a function of the chargino mass (), the lightest neutralino mass () and the second lightest neutralino mass (). Within the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model framework, and for GeV, the 95% confidence level lower limits on are 93.6 GeV for and 94.1 GeV for . These limits are obtained assuming a universal scalar mass 500 GeV. The corresponding limits for all are 78.0 and 71.7 GeV. The 95% confidence level lower limits on the lightest neutralino mass, valid for any value of are 32.8 GeV for GeV and 31.6 GeV for all . Received: 14 October 1999 / Published online: 6 March 2000     

Search for chargino and neutralino production at \sqrt{s} = 181–184 GeV at LEP

A search for charginos and neutralinos, predicted by supersymmetric theories, has been performed using a data sample of 57 pb at centre-of-mass energies of 181–184 GeV taken with the OPAL detector at LEP. No evidence for chargino or neutralino production has been found. Upper limits on chargino and neutralino pair production (, ) cross-sections are obtained as a function of the chargino mass (), the lightest neutralino mass () and the second lightest neutralino mass (). For large chargino masses the limits have been improved with respect to the previous analyses at lower centre-of-mass energies. Exclusion regions at 95% confidence level (C.L.) of parameters of the Constrained Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model are determined for the case of a large universal scalar mass, , implying heavy scalar fermions, and for the case of a small resulting in light scalar fermions and giving the worst-case limits. Within this framework and for GeV the 95% C.L. lower limits on for GeV are 90.0 and 90.2 GeV for and 35 respectively. These limits for all (the worst-case) are 69.1 and 65.2 GeV for and 35 respectively. Exclusion regions are also presented for neutralino masses, including an absolute lower limit at 95% C.L. for the mass of the lightest neutralino of 30.1 GeV for GeV (24.2 GeV for all ), with implications for experimental searches for the lightest neutralino as a dark matter candidate. Received: 19 August 1998 / Published online: 11 March 1999     

Dark matter constraints on gaugino/Higgsino masses in split supersymmetry and their implications at colliders

In split supersymmetry, gauginos and Higgsinos are the only supersymmetric particles that are potentially accessible at soon-to-be-completed colliders. While direct experimental research, such as the LEP and Tevatron experiments, have given robust lower bounds on the masses of these particles, cosmic dark matter can give some upper bounds and thus have important implications for research at future colliders. In this work we scrutinize such dark matter constraints and show the allowed mass range for charginos and neutralinos (the mass eigenstates of gauginos and Higgsinos). We find that the lightest chargino must be lighter than about 1 TeV under the popular assumption M₁=M₂/2 and about 2 or 3 TeV in other cases. The corresponding production rates of the lightest chargino at the CERN large hadron collider (LHC) and the International Linear Collider (ILC) are also given. While in some parts of the allowed region the chargino pair production rate can be larger than 1 pb at the LHC and 100 fb at the ILC, other parts of the region correspond to very small production rates, and thus there is no guarantee of finding the charginos of split supersymmetry at future colliders. PACS 14.80.Ly, 95.35.+d     

Virtual LSPs at e+ e− colliders

Currently popular search strategies for supersymmetric particles may be significantly affected due to relatively light sneutrinos which decay dominantly into invisible channels. In certain cases the second lightest neutralino may also decay invisibly leading to two extra carriers of missing energy (in addition to the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) ) — the virtual LSPs (VLSPs). A tree lavel calculation shows that if the sneutrino mass happens to be in the small but experimentally allowed range (m _≈ν ≈ 45–55 GeV), these particles together with neutralino pairs may contribute significantly to the missing energy in the process e⁺e^? → γ+ E at LEP-2 energies as an enhancement over the Standard Model or the conventional MSSM predictions. It is further shown that a much larger region of the parameter space can be scanned at a high luminosity e⁺e^? collider at 500 GeV like the proposed NLC machine. Moreover, at both LEP-2 and NLC this process may play a complementary role to direct chargino searches, which may fail due to a near mass degeneracy of the chargino and the sneutrino. Formulae for the cross sections taking into account full mixings of the charginos and the neutralinos are derived. The signal remains observable even in the context of more restricted models based onN=1 SUGRA with common scalar and gaugino masses. A preliminary study of the QED radiative corrections due to soft multiple photon emission as well as hard collinear bremsstrahlung indicates that these corrections play a crucial role in estimating the background.     

Search for chargino and neutralino production at \sqrt{s} = 170 and 172 GeV at LEP

A search for charginos and neutralinos, predicted by supersymmetric theories, has been performed using a data sample of pb at centre-of-mass energies of 170 and 172 GeV with the OPAL detector at LEP. No evidence for these particles has been found. The results are combined with those from previous OPAL chargino and neutralino searches at lower energies to obtain limits. Exclusion regions at 95% C.L. of parameters of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model are determined. Within this framework, for , lower mass limits are placed on the lightest chargino and the three lightest neutralinos. The 95% C.L. lower mass limit on the lightest chargino, assuming that it is heavier than the lightest neutralino by more than 10 GeV, is 84.5 GeV for the case of a large universal scalar mass ( 1 TeV) and 65.7 GeV for the smallest compatible with current limits on the sneutrino mass and slepton cross-sections. The lower limit on the lightest neutralino mass at 95% C.L. for is 24.7 GeV for TeV and 13.3 GeV for the minimum scenario. These mass limits are higher for increasing values of . The interpretation of the limits in terms of gluino and scalar quark mass limits is also given. Received: 11 July 1997 / Online publication: February 26, 1998     

Neutralino and chargino masses and related sum rules beyond MSSM

We study the implications of dimension five operators involving Higgs chiral superfields for the masses of neutralinos and charginos in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). These operators can arise from additional interactions beyond those of MSSM involving new degrees of freedom at or above the TeV scale. In addition to the masses of the neutralinos and charginos, we study the sum rules involving the masses and squared masses of these particles for different gaugino mass patterns in presence of the dimension five operators. We derive a relation for the higgsino mixing mass parameter and tan β in the presence of the dimension five operators.     

Radioactive Production of the Lightest Neutralino in the Process of <Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript>+</Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript>−</Superscript> Annihilation

The production of the lightest stable neutralino in the reaction with general mixing of the higgsino and gaugino is studied. General formulas for differential cross sections are presented. The dependence of the effective differential cross section on the photon energy spectrum and electron mass is illustrated together with the dependence of the effective total cross section on the beam energy for three different scenarios. __________ Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 6, pp. 48–57, June, 2005.     

Spin correlations in production and decay of charginos

We study the production of charginos with polarized beams and the subsequent decays and , including the complete spin correlations between production and decay. Analytical formulae are presented for the joint spin-density matrix of the charginos, for the chargino decay matrix and for the differential cross section of the combined processes of production and decays. We present numerical results for pair production of the lighter chargino with unpolarized beams and the leptonic decay of into the lightest neutralino . The lepton angular distribution and the forward-backward asymmetry are studied in four representative scenarios for GeV and GeV. Received: 28 April 1998 / Revised version: 18 June 1998 / Published online: 8 September 1998     

Search for supersymmetric particles in light gravitino scenarios and sleptons NLSP

A search for sleptons, neutralinos, charginos, sgoldstinos and heavy stable charged sleptons in the context of scenarios where the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino, is presented. Data collected during 2000 with the DELPHI detector at centre-of-mass energies from 204 to 208 GeV were analysed and combined with all the data collected from 1995 to 1999 at lower energies. No evidence for the production of sleptons, neutralinos and charginos has been found, therefore new limits on the mass of these supersymmetric particles and on the model parameter space are set. The search for heavy stable charged sleptons also updates the stable sleptons mass limit. The absence of evidence for sgoldstino production allows limits to be set on its mass and on the scale of supersymmetry breaking. Received: 6 November 2002 / Published online: 14 February 2003     

CP asymmetries in the supersymmetric trilepton signal at the LHC

In the CP-violating Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, we study the production of a neutralino–chargino pair at the LHC. For their decays into three leptons, we analyze CP asymmetries which are sensitive to the CP phases of the neutralino and chargino sector. We present analytical formulas for the entire production and decay process, and identify the CP-violating contributions in the spin correlation terms. This allows us to define the optimal CP asymmetries. We present a detailed numerical analysis of the cross sections, branching ratios, and the CP observables. For light neutralinos, charginos, and squarks, the asymmetries can reach several 10%. We estimate the discovery potential for the LHC to observe CP violation in the trilepton channel.     

Doubly charged higgsino pair production and decays in {\bf e^+e^-} collisions

In supersymmetric grand unified theories, light higgsino multiplets generally exist in addition to the familiar chargino/neutralino multiplets of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model. The new multiplets may include doubly charged states and . We study the properties and the production channels of these novel higgsinos in and collisions, and investigate how their properties can be analyzed experimentally. Received: 24 November 1998 / Published online: 11 March 1999     

A supersymmetric extension of the standard model with bilinear R-parity violation

The minimum supersymmetric standard model with bilinear R-parity violation is studied systematically. As we consider low-energy supersymmetry, we examine the structure of the bilinear R-parity violating model carefully. We analyze the mixing of, e.g., Higgs bosons with sleptons, neutralinos with neutrinos and charginos with charged leptons in the model. Possible and some important physics results, e.g. that the lightest Higgs may be heavier than the weak Z-boson at tree level, are obtained. The Feynman rules for the model are derived in the 't Hooft–Feynman gauge, which is convenient if perturbative calculations are needed beyond the tree level. Received: 26 April 1999 / Revised version: 28 June 1999 / Published online: 16 November 1999     

Search for charginos nearly mass-degenerate with the lightest neutralino

A search for charginos with masses close to the mass of the lightest neutralino is reported, based on the data collected with the DELPHI detector at LEP from 1995 to 1997 at centre-of-mass energies between 130 and 183 GeV. The signature of a photon at high transverse momentum radiated from the initial state reduces the two-photon background to acceptable rates, thus making the mass differences between a few hundred MeV/c and 3 GeV/c detectable. In very nearly degenerate scenarios, the lifetime of the chargino can be large enough to produce either visible secondary vertices or decays outside the detector; therefore, quasi-stable heavy charged particles and displaced decay vertices were also searched for. No excess of events with respect to the Standard Model expectations was observed, and limits in the plane of chargino-neutralino mass difference versus chargino mass are given. Received: 20 March 1999 / Published online: 8 September 1999     

Search for supersymmetric particles in scenarios with a gravitino LSP and stau NLSP

Sleptons, neutralinos and charginos were searched for in the context of scenarios where the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino. It was assumed that the stau is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle. Data collected with the DELPHI detector at a centre-of-mass energy near 189 GeV were analysed combining the methods developed in previous searches at lower energies. No evidence for the production of these supersymmetric particles was found. Hence, limits were derived at 95% confidence level. Received: 3 February 2000 / Revised version: 3 March 2000 / Published online: 8 May 2000     

The Effects from the Complex Parameters on t→ch^0 Within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model

We investigate the effects from complex parameters on the branching ratio (BR) of the flavor changing rare decay t→ch^0 contributed by the electroweak interactions in the framework of the minimal supersymmetric standard model with complex parameters. We study the dependence of the BR on the possible relevant additional parameter swhich could be the originalsources inducing CP-violation, i.e., the complex phase angles φμ and φAb in squark and chargino sectors and δ13 appearing in Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix. We find that these parameters influence the BR obviously and the effects induced by φμ and φAb are much larger than by δ13. With the different chosen values of the complex parameters, the BR is in the range between 10^-10 and 10^-8, depending mainly on the phase angles of the higgsino mass parameter μ and the trilinear coupling Ab.     

Search for events with leptonic jets and missing transverse energy in pp collisions at √s=1.96 TeV

We present the first search for pair production of isolated jets of charged leptons in association with a large imbalance in transverse energy in pp collisions using 5.8 fb?1 of integrated luminosity collected by the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. No excess is observed above the standard model background, and the result is used to set upper limits on the production cross section of pairs of supersymmetric chargino and neutralino particles as a function of "dark-photon" mass, where the dark photon is produced in the decay of the lightest supersymmetric particle.     

Supersymmetric contributions to B→DK and the determination of angle γ

We analyze supersymmetric contributions to the branching ratios and CP asymmetries of B^-→D⁰K^- and B^-→D̄⁰K^- processes. We investigate the possibility that supersymmetric CP violating phases can affect our determination for the angle γ in the unitary triangle of Cabibbo–Kobayashi–Maskawa mixing matrix. We calculate the gluino and chargino contributions to b→u(c̄s) and b→c(ūs) transitions in a model independent way by using the mass insertion approximation method. We also revise the D⁰–D̄⁰ mixing constraints on the mass insertions between the first and second generations of the up sector. We emphasize that in case of negligible D⁰–D̄⁰ mixing, one should consider simultaneous contributions from more than one mass insertion in order to be able to obtain the CP asymmetries of these processes within their 1σ experimental range. However, with a large D⁰–D̄⁰ mixing, one finds a significant deviation between the two asymmetries and it becomes natural to have them of the order of the central values of their experimental measurements.