Supersymmetric top and bottom squark production at hadron colliders
Wim Beenakker, Silja Brensing, Michael Krämer, Anna Kulesza, Eric Laenen, Irene Niessen
TL;DR
The paper addresses precise theoretical predictions for top and bottom squark (stop/sbottom) pair production at hadron colliders, focusing on Tevatron and LHC energies. It combines next-to-leading order SUSY-QCD corrections with next-to-leading-log threshold resummation to improve total cross sections and transverse-momentum distributions. It extends threshold resummation to stops and non-degenerate sbottoms and analyzes the impact on differential distributions. The results quantify reduced scale and PDF uncertainties and provide benchmark cross sections to aid experimental searches and mass-limit interpretations in SUSY scenarios with light stops.
Abstract
The scalar partners of top and bottom quarks are expected to be the lightest squarks in supersymmetric theories, with potentially large cross sections at hadron colliders. We present predictions for the production of top and bottom squarks at the Tevatron and the LHC, including next-to-leading order corrections in supersymmetric QCD and the resummation of soft gluon emission at next-to-leading-logarithmic accuracy. We discuss the impact of the higher-order corrections on total cross sections and transverse-momentum distributions, and provide an estimate of the theoretical uncertainty due to scale variation and the parton distribution functions.