Universe Colloquium: What really are the limits on electroweak sparticles from the LHC?

by Aoife Bharucha (TUM)

Wednesday 8 Jan 2014, 16:30 → 17:30 Europe/Berlin

seminar room, basement (Excellence Cluster Universe)

Supersymmetry (SUSY) is a theory providing possible solutions to many unanswered questions, such as the nature of dark matter and the hierarchy problem. However, so far none of the supersymmetric partners of the standard model particles (sparticles), predicted by this theory have been seen at colliders. The LHC in particular has been successful in pushing the limits on these sparticles towards the TeV scale, particularly for coloured sparticles. The production of electroweak sparticles is suppressed, and therefore the bounds are much weaker. The LHC experiments interpret their results in terms of simplified models, and the severity of the resulting bounds has resulted in people questioning whether SUSY can really still answer the hierarchy problem. Aoife will present what the bounds on these particles really are, particularly for the case of electroweak sparticles, the lightest of which is a potential candidate for WIMP-like dark matter. Further, Aoife will discuss whether, in the light of these bounds, the original motivations for SUSY are still as persuasive as they were in the pre-LHC era. The Universe Colloquium is followed by a social gathering with wine and cheese.