Trilepton Signal of Minimal Supergravity at the Tevatron Including $\tau$-lepton Contributions

Abstract

The trilepton signal with missing transverse energy ($3\ell+\notE_T$, with $\ell = e$ or $\mu$) from chargino-neutralino ($\chi^\pm_1 \chi^0_2$) associated production and decays is studied for the upgraded Fermilab Tevatron Collider with 2 TeV center of mass energy and integrated luminosity of 2 fb$^{-1}$ (MI) to 20 fb$^{-1}$ (TeV33). In some regions of parameter space in the minimal supergravity model, $\chi^\pm_1$ and $\chi^0_2$ decay dominantly into final states with $\tau$ leptons via real or virtual $\tilde{\tau}_1$ sleptons. The contributions from $\tau-$leptonic decays increase the trilepton signal from $\chi^\pm_1 \chi^0_2$ by at least a factor of two when soft but realistic cuts on lepton transverse momenta are used. With the Main Injector, a trilepton signal can be detected at $\tan\beta \equiv v_2/v_1 \sim 3$ for universal masses $m_{1/2}, m_0 \alt$ 200 GeV.