paper

Three-body decays of selectrons and smuons in low-energy supersymmetry breaking models

arXiv:hep-ph/9710217 · doi:10.1016/S0550-3213(98)00041-8

Abstract

In models with low-energy supersymmetry breaking, it is well-known that charged sleptons can be significantly lighter than the lightest neutralino, with the gravitino and lighter stau being the lightest and next-to-lightest supersymmetric particles respectively. We give analytical formulas for the three-body decays of right-handed selectrons and smuons into final states involving a tau, a stau, and an electron or muon, which are relevant in this scenario. We find that the three-body decays dominate over much of the parameter space, but the two-body decays into a lepton and a gravitino can compete if the three-body phase space is small and the supersymmetry-breaking scale (governing the two-body channel) is fairly low. We study this situation quantitatively for typical gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking model parameters. The three-body decay lengths are possibly macroscopic, leading to new unusual signals. We also analyze the final-state energy distributions, and briefly assess the prospects for detecting these decays at CERN LEP2 and other colliders.

arXiv commentLaTeX, 16 pages. v3 corrects sign errors in eqs. (9) and (10)

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