The light stop window

Abstract

We show that a right-handed stop in the 200-400 GeV mass range, together with a nearly degenerate neutralino and, possibly, a gluino below 1.5 TeV, follows from reasonable assumptions, is consistent with present data, and offers interesting discovery prospects at the LHC. Triggering on an extra jet produced in association with stops allows the experimental search for stops even when their mass difference with neutralinos is very small and the decay products are too soft for direct observation. Using a razor analysis, we are able to set stop bounds that are stronger than those published by ATLAS and CMS.

Comments: 21 pages, 9 figures. v2: fig. 9b has been updated and revised at large values of the stop/neutralino mass splitting. The discussion of stop co-annihilations has been upgraded including Sommerfeld enhancements