Professor Amanda Cooper-Sarkar

Abstract:

The results of a search for pair production of the lighter scalar partners of top quarks (t~1) in 2.05 fb -1 of pp collisions at s=7 TeV using the ATLAS experiment at the LHC are reported. Scalar top quarks are searched for in events with two same flavour opposite-sign leptons (e, μ) with invariant mass consistent with the Z boson mass, large missing transverse momentum and jets in the final state. At least one of the jets is identified as originating from a b-quark. No excess over Standard Model expectations is found. The results are interpreted in the framework of R-parity conserving, gauge mediated Supersymmetry breaking 'natural' scenarios, where the neutralino (χ~10) is the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle. Scalar top quark masses up to 310 GeV are excluded for 115GeVmZ. © 2012 CERN.

Abstract:

This Letter presents a search for tb resonances in 1.04fb-1 of LHC proton-proton collision data collected by the ATLAS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV. Events with a lepton, missing transverse momentum, and two jets are selected and the invariant mass of the corresponding final state is reconstructed. The search exploits the shape of the tb invariant mass distribution compared to the expected standard model backgrounds. The model of a right-handed WR′ with standard model-like couplings is chosen as the benchmark model for this search. No statistically significant excess of events is observed in the data, and upper limits on the cross section times the branching ratio of WR′ resonances at 95% C.L. lie in the range of 6.1-1.0 pb for WR′ masses ranging from 0.5 to 2.0 TeV. These limits are translated into a lower bound on the allowed right-handed WR′ mass, giving m WR′>1.13TeV at 95% C.L. © 2012 CERN.