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School of Physical and Chemical Sciences

Supersymmetry searches with the ATLAS detector

Research Group: Particle Physics Research Centre
Number of Students: 1
Length of Study in Years: 3-4
Full-time Project: yes

Funding

Discuss with supervisor and/or admissions tutor

Project Description

Supersymmetry (SUSY) is an extension of the Standard Model (SM) that can resolve the gauge hierarchy problem by introducing supersymmetric partners of the known bosons and fermions. The SUSY partner to the top quark, the top squark, plays an important role in cancelling the dominant top quark loop diagram contributions to the divergence of the Higgs boson mass. In R-parity conserving SUSY models, the supersymmetric partners are produced in pairs. Their decay topologies depend on the model parameters, but assuming a stop decaying into a top and the lightest neutralino, one can explore an interesting portion of the SUSY parameter space and extend the interpretation of the analysis also to dark matter simplified models.
In ATLAS we can search for such signature exploiting the hadronic decays of the W boson thus looking for jets and missing energy. It is a challenging analysis as a good number of Standard Model decays can mimic this final states so studies on how to discriminate them from the signal are crucial. Building on the group expertise in multivariate analysis, we would employ these advanced methods to obtain more sensitive analyses by retaining more signal events.

SPCS Academics: Marcella Bona