Heavy Flavor Simplified Models at the LHC

109 citations (100 excluding self-citations). Extended the Simplified Models framework to heavy flavor final states, where stop and sbottom searches are the primary targets.

The Problem

The Simplified Models paper provided a comprehensive framework for jets+MET searches, but heavy flavor final states — events with top and bottom quarks — require their own treatment. Stop squarks, sbottom squarks, and gluinos decaying through third-generation squarks produce b-jets, top quarks, and missing energy in combinations that depend on the mass hierarchy. Different mass orderings produce qualitatively different signatures: same-sign dileptons, multiple b-jets, or top pairs plus MET. No single search covers all of them.

The Approach

The paper catalogs simplified models for heavy flavor final states organized by production mechanism (color octet or triplet pair production) and decay topology. For each topology, it identifies the optimal search strategy and provides benchmark points that ensure coverage across the parameter space. A key finding: for datasets larger than 1 fb^-1, same-sign dilepton and 3b search regions become powerful tools that complement the traditional jets+MET approach. The paper provides expected sensitivities from both existing and optimized searches.

Recollections

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• DOI
• arXiv:1110.6443
• INSPIRE