Supersymmetry Explanation for the Puzzling Bottom Quark Production Cross Section

Abstract

It has been known for a long time that the cross section for bottom-quark $b$ production at hadron collider energies exceeds theoretical expectations. An additional contribution from pair-production of light gluinos $\tilde{g}$, of mass 12 to 16 GeV, with two-body decays into bottom quarks and light bottom squarks $\tilde{b}$, helps to obtain a $b$ production rate in better agreement with data. The masses of the $\tilde{g}$ and $\tilde{b}$ are restricted further by the ratio of like-sign to opposite-sign leptons at hadron colliders. Constraints on this scenario from other data are examined, and predictions are made for various processes such as Upsilon decay into ${\tilde{b}}^{\prime }s$.

Comments: 10 pages, latex, 2 figures. Invited paper to be published in the Proceedings of the 9th International Symposium on Heavy Flavor Physics, Caltech, Pasadena, CA, September 10 - 13, 2001