Combined search for electroweak production of charginos and neutralinos in proton-proton collisions at √s=13 TeV

Abstract

A statistical combination of several searches for the electroweak production of charginos and neutralinos is presented. All searches use proton-proton collision data at √s=13 TeV, recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb−1. In addition to the combination of previous searches, a targeted analysis requiring three or more charged leptons (electrons or muons) is presented, focusing on the challenging scenario in which the difference in mass between the two least massive neutralinos is approximately equal to the mass of the Z boson. The results are interpreted in simplified models of chargino-neutralino or neutralino pair production. For chargino-neutralino production, in the case when the lightest neutralino is massless, the combination yields an observed (expected) limit at the 95% confidence level on the chargino mass of up to 650 (570) GeV, improving upon the individual analysis limits by up to 40 GeV. If the mass difference between the two least massive neutralinos is approximately equal to the mass of the Z boson in the chargino-neutralino model, the targeted search requiring three or more leptons obtains observed and expected exclusion limits of around 225 GeV on the second neutralino mass and 125 GeV on the lightest neutralino mass, improving the observed limit by about 60 GeV in both masses compared to the previous CMS result. In the neutralino pair production model, the combined observed (expected) exclusion limit on the neutralino mass extends up to 650–750 (550–750) GeV, depending on the branching fraction assumed. This extends the observed exclusion achieved in the individual analyses by up to 200 GeV. The combined result additionally excludes some intermediate gaps in the mass coverage of the individual analyses.