Exploiting Spin Correlations in Neutralino Production and Decay with Polarized e^- and e^+ Beams

Abstract

We study the production process e^+ e^- -> chi^0_1 chi^0_2 and the subsequent decay chi^0_2 -> chi^0_1 l^+ l^- with polarized e^+ and e^- beams, including the spin correlations between production and decay. We work out the advantages of polarizing both beams. We study in detail the angular distribution and the forward--backward asymmetry of the decay lepton as well as the opening angle distribution between the decay leptons. We investigate the dependence on the masses of tilde{e}_L and tilde{e}_R and on the mixing character of the neutralinos. In particular we study the dependence on the gaugino mass parameter M_1.