Abstract
A search for pair production of bottom squarks in events with hadronically decaying -leptons, -tagged jets, and large missing transverse momentum is presented. The analyzed dataset is based on proton-proton collisions at delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded by the ATLAS detector from 2015 to 2018, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of . The observed data are compatible with the expected Standard Model background. Results are interpreted in a simplified model where each bottom squark is assumed to decay into the second-lightest neutralino and a bottom quark, with decaying into a Higgs boson and the lightest neutralino . The search focuses on final states where at least one Higgs boson decays into a pair of hadronically decaying -leptons. This allows the acceptance and thus the sensitivity to be significantly improved relative to the previous results at low masses of the , where bottom-squark masses up to 850 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, assuming a mass difference of 130 GeV between and . Model-independent upper limits are also set on the cross section of processes beyond the Standard Model.
1 More- Received 16 March 2021
- Accepted 9 July 2021
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.104.032014
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© 2021 CERN, for the ATLAS Collaboration