Sharpening $m_{T2}$ cusps: the mass determination of semi-invisibly decaying particles from a resonance

Abstract

We revisit mass determination techniques for the minimum symmetric event topology, namely $X$ pair production followed by $X \to \ell N$, where $X$ and $N$ are unknown particles with the masses to be measured, and $N$ is an invisible particle, concentrating on the case where $X$ is pair produced from a resonance. We consider separate scenarios, with different initial constraints on the invisible particle momenta, and present a systematic method to identify the kinematically allowed mass regions in the $(m_N, m_X)$ plane. These allowed regions exhibit a cusp structure at the true mass point, which is equivalent to the one observed in the $m_{T2}$ endpoints in certain cases. By considering the boundary of the allowed mass region we systematically define kinematical variables which can be used in measuring the unknown masses, and find a new expression for the $m_{T2}$ variable as well as its inverse. We explicitly apply our method to the case that $X$ is pair produced from a resonance, and as a case study, we consider the process $pp \to A \to \tilde χ_1^+ \tilde χ_1^-$, followed by $\tilde χ_1^\pm \to \ell^{\pm} \, \tilde ν_{\ell}$, in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model and show that our method provides a precise measurement of the chargino and sneutrino masses, $m_X$ and $m_N$, at $14 \, \mathrm{TeV}$ LHC with $300 \, \mathrm{fb}^{-1}$ luminosity.