Limiting SUSY compressed spectra scenarios

Abstract

Typical searches for supersymmetry cannot test models in which the two lightest particles have a small ("compressed") mass splitting, due to the small momentum of the particles produced in the decay of the second-to-lightest particle. However, datasets with large missing transverse momentum ($E_{\rm T}^{\rm miss}$) can generically search for invisible particle production and therefore provide constraints on such models. We apply data from the ATLAS mono-jet (jet+$E_{\rm T}^{\rm miss}$) and vector-boson-fusion (forward jets and $E_{\rm T}^{\rm miss}$) searches to such models. The two datasets have complementary sensitivity, but in all cases experimental limits are at least five times weaker than theoretical predictions.