Identifying a Higgsino-like NLSP in the context of a keV-scale gravitino LSP

Abstract

The presence of a Higgsino-like neutralino next-to-lightest sparticle (NLSP) and a keV scale gravitino ($\tilde{G}$) LSP opens up new decay modes of the NLSP, mainly to a Higgs/$Z$ boson and the LSP. Besides, a keV-scale gravitino as a warm dark matter candidate salvages a relatively-light Higgsino-like NLSP from dark matter constraints. We focus on the prospects of observing at least one b jet and two opposite sign leptons with a large missing transverse momenta ($\ge 1b$ $+$ ${\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}+/E_T$) signal at the LHC. A distinguishing feature of this scenario is the production of longitudinal $Z$ bosons in neutralino decays, unlike in the case of gauginolike neutralinos, where the $Z$ is mostly transverse. The polarisation information of the parent $Z$ boson gets reflected in the angular distributions of the decay leptons and in some other variables derived therefrom.

Comments: 16 pages,5 figures, 8 tables, matches published version