The Reach of the CERN Large Hadron Collider for Gauge-Mediated Supersymmetry Breaking Models

Abstract

We examine signals for sparticle production at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) within the framework of gauge mediated supersymmetry breaking models with a low SUSY breaking scale for four different model lines, each of which leads to qualitatively different signatures. We first examine the reach of the LHC via the canonical E_T^miss and multilepton channels that have been advocated within the mSUGRA framework. Next, we examine special features of each of these model lines that could serve to further enhance the SUSY signal over Standard Model backgrounds. We use ISAJET to evaluate the SUSY reach of experiments at the LHC. We find that the SUSY reach, measured in terms of m(gluino), is at least as large, and sometimes larger, than in the mSUGRA framework. In the best case of the co-NLSP scenario, the reach extends to m(gluino) >~ 3 TeV, assuming 10 fb^-1 of integrated luminosity.