Measuring the SUSY Mass Scale at the LHC

Abstract

An effective mass scale Meffsusy for supersymmetric particles is defined and techniques for its measurement at the LHC discussed. Monte Carlo results show that, for jets + ETmiss events, a variable constructed from the scalar sum of the transverse momenta of all reconstructed jets together with ETmiss provides in most cases the most accurate model independent measurement of Meffsusy (intrinsic precision ~ 2.1 % for mSUGRA models). The overall precision with which Meffsusy could be measured after given periods of LHC running and for given classes of SUSY models is calculated. The technique is extended to measurements of the total SUSY particle production cross section sigmasusy.