Constraining Selectron LSP Scenarios with Tevatron Trilepton Searches

The Tevatron collaborations have searched for associated production of charginos and neutralinos via trilepton final states. No events above the Standard Model prediction were observed. We employ these results to put stringent bounds on R-parity violating models with a right-handed scalar electron as the lightest supersymmetric particle. We work in the framework of lepton number violating minimal supergravity. We find that within these models the complete parameter space consistent with the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon can be excluded at 90% confidence level. We also give prospects for Tevatron trilepton searches assuming an integrated luminosity of 10 fb^{-1}. We find that Tevatron will be able to test selectron LSP masses up to 170 GeV.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figure

Bounds on R-parity Violating Couplings at the Grand Unification Scale from Neutrino Masses

We consider the embedding of the supersymmetric Standard Model with broken R-parity in the minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) model. We restrict ourselves to the case of broken lepton number, the B3 mSUGRA model. We first study in detail how the tree-level neutrino mass depends on the mSUGRA parameters. We find in particular a strong dependence on the trilinear supersymmetry breaking A-parameter, even in the vicinity of the mSUGRA SPS1a point. We then reinvestigate the bounds on the trilinear R-parity violating couplings at the unification scale from the low-energy neutrino masses including dominant one-loop contributions. These bounds were previously shown to be very strict, as low as O(10^{-6}) for SPS1a. We show that these bounds are significantly weakened when considering the full mSUGRA parameter space. In particular the ratio between the tree-level and 1-loop neutrino masses is reduced such that it may agree with the observed neutrino mass hierarchy. We discuss in detail how and in which parameter regions this effect arises.Comment: 24 pages, 14 figure

All Possible Lightest Supersymmetric Particles in R-Parity Violating mSUGRA Models and their Signals at the LHC

We consider minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) models with an additional R-parity violating operator at the grand unification scale. This can change the supersymmetric spectrum leading on the one hand to a sneutrino, smuon or squark as the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP). On the other hand, a wide parameter region is reopened, where the scalar tau is the LSP. It is vital to know the nature of the LSP, because supersymmetric particles normally cascade decay down to the LSP at collider experiments. We investigate in detail the conditions leading to non-neutralino LSP scenarios. We also present some typical LHC signatures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted for the proceedings of the SUSY09 conferenc

Sneutrino as Lightest Supersymmetric Particle in B3 mSUGRA Models and Signals at the LHC

We consider B3 mSUGRA models where we have one lepton number violating LQD operator at the GUT scale. This can alter the supersymmetric mass spectrum leading to a sneutrino as the lightest supersymmetric particle in a large region of parameter space. We take into account the restrictions from neutrino masses, the muon anomalous magnetic moment, b -> s gamma and other precision measurements. We furthermore investigate existing restrictions from direct searches at LEP, the Tevatron and the CERN p\bar p collider. We then give examples for characteristic signatures at the LHC.Comment: 22 pages, 11 figure

Supersymmetric NLO QCD Corrections to Resonant Slepton Production and Signals at the Tevatron and the LHC

We compute the total cross section and the transverse momentum distribution for single charged slepton and sneutrino production at hadronic colliders including NLO supersymmetric and non-supersymmetric QCD corrections. The supersymmetric QCD corrections can be substantial. We also resum the gluon transverse momentum distribution and compare our results with two Monte Carlo generators. We compute branching ratios of the supersymmetric decays of the slepton and determine event rates for the like-sign dimuon final state at the Tevatron and at the LHC.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, 8 figures, uses REVTex

Stau as the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle in R-Parity Violating SUSY Models: Discovery Potential with Early LHC Data

We investigate the discovery potential of the LHC experiments for R-parity violating supersymmetric models with a stau as the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) in the framework of minimal supergravity. We classify the final states according to their phenomenology for different R-parity violating decays of the LSP. We then develop event selection cuts for a specific benchmark scenario with promising signatures for the first beyond the Standard Model discoveries at the LHC. For the first time in this model, we perform a detailed signal over background analysis. We use fast detector simulations to estimate the discovery significance taking the most important Standard Model backgrounds into account. Assuming an integrated luminosity of 1 inverse femtobarn at a center-of-mass energy of 7 TeV, we perform scans in the parameter space around the benchmark scenario we consider. We then study the feasibility to estimate the mass of the stau-LSP. We briefly discuss difficulties, which arise in the identification of hadronic tau decays due to small tau momenta and large particle multiplicities in our scenarios.Comment: 26 pages, 18 figures, LaTeX; minor changes, final version published in PR

Research Proposal for an Experiment to Search for the Decay {\mu} -> eee

We propose an experiment (Mu3e) to search for the lepton flavour violating decay mu+ -> e+e-e+. We aim for an ultimate sensitivity of one in 10^16 mu-decays, four orders of magnitude better than previous searches. This sensitivity is made possible by exploiting modern silicon pixel detectors providing high spatial resolution and hodoscopes using scintillating fibres and tiles providing precise timing information at high particle rates.Comment: Research proposal submitted to the Paul Scherrer Institute Research Committee for Particle Physics at the Ring Cyclotron, 104 page

Borrelia recurrentis employs a novel multifunctional surface protein with anti-complement, anti-opsonic and invasive potential to escape innate immunity

Borrelia recurrentis, the etiologic agent of louse-borne relapsing fever in humans, has evolved strategies, including antigenic variation, to evade immune defence, thereby causing severe diseases with high mortality rates. Here we identify for the first time a multifunctional surface lipoprotein of B. recurrentis, termed HcpA, and demonstrate that it binds human complement regulators, Factor H, CFHR-1, and simultaneously, the host protease plasminogen. Cell surface bound factor H was found to retain its activity and to confer resistance to complement attack. Moreover, ectopic expression of HcpA in a B. burgdorferi B313 strain, deficient in Factor H binding proteins, protected the transformed spirochetes from complement-mediated killing. Furthermore, HcpA-bound plasminogen/plasmin endows B. recurrentis with the potential to resist opsonization and to degrade extracellular matrix components. Together, the present study underscores the high virulence potential of B. recurrentis. The elucidation of the molecular basis underlying the versatile strategies of B. recurrentis to escape innate immunity and to persist in human tissues, including the brain, may help to understand the pathological processes underlying louse-borne relapsing fever