Interpreting a CMS excess in lljj+missing-transverse-momentum with the golden cascade of the minimal supersymmetric standard model

Abstract

The CMS experiment recently reported an excess consistent with an invariant mass edge in opposite-sign same flavor leptons, when produced in conjunction with at least two jets and missing transverse momentum. We provide an interpretation of the edge in terms of (anti)squark pair production followed by the “golden cascade” decay for one of the squarks: q˜→χ˜20q→l˜lq→χ˜10qll in the minimal supersymmetric standard model. A simplified model involving binos, winos, an on-shell slepton, and the first two generations of squarks fits the event rate and the invariant mass edge. We check consistency with a recent ATLAS search in a similar region, finding that much of the good-fit parameter space is still allowed at the 95% confidence level (C.L.). However, a combination of other LHC searches, notably two-lepton stop pair searches and jets plus pT, rule out all of the remaining parameter space at the 95% C.L.