A General Search for Supersymmetry in Compressed Scenarios Featuring a Novel Fake Lepton Estimation Method

Abstract

The overarching, foundational theory of our universe, the Standard Model, is a powerful predictor of known physics. However, there are still open questions in this model of physics that are currently being explored, such as the nature of dark matter, the origin of matter/anti-matter asymmetry, and the potential unification of fundamental forces. One theory that could prove to be an answer to some of these questions is supersymmetry (SUSY), an extension of the Standard Model. This analysis searches for evidence of electroweak SUSY in compressed scenarios, where the mass of the parent sparticle is close to that of its invisible child. This paper describes an analysis with leptonic final states from proton-proton collisions at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) with the Compact Muon Solenoid detector. In addition to analyzing events with the Recursive Jigsaw Reconstruction method, the analysis also presents a novel, shape-based method for estimating the fake leptonic background. Preliminary exclusion limits show sensitivity to higher parent sparticle masses and smaller, more compressed mass splittings than previously probed at the LHC.