Measuring the SUSY Breaking Scale at the LHC in the Slepton NLSP Scenario of GMSB Models

Abstract

We report a study on the measurement of the SUSY breaking scale sqrt(F) in the framework of gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking (GMSB) models at the LHC. The work is focused on the GMSB scenario where a stau is the next-to-lightest SUSY particle (NLSP) and decays into a gravitino with lifetime c*tau_NLSP in the range 0.5 m to 1 km. We study the identification of long-lived sleptons using the momentum and time of flight measurements in the muon chambers of the ATLAS experiment. A realistic evaluation of the statistical and systematic uncertainties on the measurement of the slepton mass and lifetime is performed, based on a detailed simulation of the detector response. Accessible range and precision on sqrt(F) achievable with a counting method are assessed. Many features of our analysis can be extended to the study of different theoretical frameworks with similar signatures at the LHC.Comment: 28 pages, 12 figures (18 eps files). Revised version v2(published in JHEP): Some important corrections and additions to v