Searching for Bottom Squarks at Luminosity Upgrades of the Fermilab Tevatron

Abstract

Because of their Yukawa interactions, third generation squarks may be substantially lighter than those of the first two generations. Assuming that $\tb_1 \to b\tz_1$ and $\tz_1$ escapes experimental detection, we show that experiments at the Main Injector upgrade (integrated luminosity of $2 fb^{-1}$) of the Tevatron should be sensitive to $b$-squark masses up to 210 GeV for $m_{\tz_1} \leq 120$ GeV. For integrated luminosities of $10 fb^{-1}$ (25 $fb^{-1}$) the sbottom mass reach increases by 20 GeV (35 GeV). If the channel $\tb_1 \to b\tz_2$ is also accessible, the reach becomes model-dependent and may be degraded relative to the case where only the decay to $\tz_1$ is allowed. In models with gaugino mass unification and $\mu$ much larger than gaugino masses, we argue that this degradation is unlikely to be larger than 30-40 GeV.