Search for Scalar Bottom Quarks from Gluino Decays in p̅p Collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV

Authors

A. Abulencia, University of Illinois, Urbana
Kenneth A. Bloom, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
CDF Collaboration

Date of this Version

5-5-2006

Comments

Published by American Physical Society. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 171802 (2006). http://prl.aps.org. Copyright © 2006 American Physical Society. Permission to use.

Abstract

We searched for scalar bottom quarks in 156 pb^-1 of p̅p collisions at √s = 1.96 TeV recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab II experiment at the Tevatron. Scalar bottom quarks can be produced from gluino decays in R-parity conserving models of super-symmetry when the mass of the gluino exceeds that of the scalar bottom quark. Then, a scalar bottom quark can decay into a bottom quark and a neutralino. To search for this scenario, we investigated events with large missing transverse energy and at least three jets, two or more of which were identified as containing a secondary vertex from the hadronization of b quarks. We found four candidate events, where 2.6 ± 0.7 are expected from standard model processes, and placed 95% confidence level lower limits on gluino and scalar bottom quark masses of up to 280 and 240 GeV/c², respectively.