Simplified SUSY at the ILC

Abstract

At the ILC, one has the possibility to search for SUSY in an model-independent way: The corner-stone of SUSY is that sparticles couple as particles. This is independent of the mechanism responsible for SUSY breaking. Any model will have one Lightest SUSY Particle (LSP), and one Next to Lightest SUSY Particle (NLSP). In models with conserved R-parity, the NLSP must decay solely to the LSP and the SM partner of the NLSP. Therefore, studying NLSP production and decay can be regarded as a "simplified model without simplification": Any SUSY model will have such a process. The NLSP could be any sparticle: a slepton, an electroweak-ino, or even a squark. However, since there are only a finite number of sparticles, one can systematically search for signals of all possible NLSP:s. This way, the entire space of models that have a kinematicall y reachable NLSP can be covered. For any NLSP, the "worst case" can be determined, since the SUSY principle allows to calculate the cross-section once the NLSP nature and mass are given. The region in the LSP-NLSP mass-plane where the "worst case" could be discovered or excluded experimentally can be found by estimating background and efficiency at each point in the plane. From experience at LEP, it is expected that the lower signal-to background ratio will indeed be found for models with conserved R-parity. In this document, we show that at the ILC, such a program is possible, as it was at LEP. No loop-holes are left, even for difficult or non-standard cases: whatever the NLSP is it will be detectable.