Mass determination in sequential particle decay chains

Abstract

A simple method is proposed for determining the masses of new particles in collider events containing a pair of decay chains (not necessarily identical) of the form Z -> Y+1, Y -> X+2, X -> N+3, where 1,2 and 3 are visible but N is not. Initial study of a possible supersymmetric case suggests that the method can determine the four unknown masses in effectively identical chains with good accuracy from samples of a few tens of events.