Search for the SUSY Electroweak Sector at $ep$ Colliders
The sensitivity of future electron-proton colliders, the LHeC and FCC-eh, to weakly-produced supersymmetric particles is evaluated in this article. Supersymmetric scenarios where charginos ($\tildeχ_1^{\pm}$) and neutralinos ($\tildeχ_1^{0}$ and $\tildeχ_2^{0}$) are nearly degenerate in mass are considered. Two sets of models, which differ in the mass of sleptons ($\tilde{\ell}$), are studied. Under the hypothesis that slepton masses are at the multi-TeV scale (``decoupled'' scenario), the production processes for charginos and neutralinos at $ep$ colliders, $p\, e^- \to j\, e^-\, \tildeχ \tildeχ$ with $\tildeχ=\tildeχ_1^{0}$, $\tildeχ_1^{\pm}$ or $\tildeχ_2^{0}$, are considered. For the models where slepton masses are above but close to $\tildeχ_1^{\pm}$, $\tildeχ_2^{0}$ masses (``compressed'' scenario), contributions from the processes $p\, e^- \to j\, \tildeχ\, \tilde{e}_L^-$ and $j\, \tildeχ\, \tildeν$ followed by the decays $\tilde{e}_L^- \to \tildeχ_{1,2}^{0} + e^-$ and $\tildeν \to \tildeχ_1^+ + e^-$ are also taken into account. These scenarios are analysed with realistic detector performance, using multivariate techniques. Effects of systematic uncertainties and electron beam polarization dependence are also discussed. The reach is found to be complementary to the one obtained at $pp$ colliders, in particular for the compressed-slepton scenario.