2015/12/21 by Christopher Samuel Redino, C. S. Redino, D. Wackeroth
Physics and Astronomy · #Axion #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark matter #Gluino #Large Hadron Collider #Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model #Neutralino #Nuclear physics #Particle physics #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Physics #Superpartner #Supersymmetry #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevd.93.075022
published as Phys. Rev. D 93, 075022 (2016) · 41 pages, 21 figures
arxiv created 2015/12/21 · openalex publication_date 2016/04/15 · arxiv updated 2016/04/20 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The addition of the QCD axion to the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) not only solves the strong CP problem but also modifies the dark sector with new dark matter candidates. While supersymmetry (SUSY) axion phenomenology is usually restricted to searches for the axion itself or searches for the ordinary SUSY particles, this work focuses on scenarios where the axion's superpartner, the axino, may be detectable at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in the decays of neutralinos displaced from the primary vertex. In particular, we focus on the Kim-Shifman-Vainshtein-Zhakharov (KSVZ) axino within the hadronic axion window. The decay length of neutralinos in this scenario easily fits the ATLAS detector for SUSY spectra expected to be testable at the 14 TeV LHC. We compare this signature of displaced decays to axinos to other well motivated scenarios containing a long lived neutralino which decays inside the detector. These alternative scenarios can in some cases very closely mimic the expected axino signature, and the degree to which they are distinguishable is discussed. We also briefly comment on the cosmological viability of such a scenario.