The ABC of RPV: classification of R-parity violating signatures at the LHC for small couplings

Abstract

Abstract We perform a classification of all potential supersymmetric R-parity violating signatures at the LHC to address the question: are existing bounds on supersymmetric models robust, or are there still signatures not covered by existing searches, allowing LHC-scale supersymmetry to be hiding? We analyze all possible scenarios with one dominant RPV trilinear coupling at a time, allowing for arbitrary LSPs and mass spectra. We consider direct production of the LSP, as well as production via gauge-cascades, and find 6 different experimental signatures for the $$ LL\overline{E} $$ LL E ¯ -case, 6 for the $$ LQ\overline{D} $$ LQ D ¯ -case, and 5 for the $$ \overline{U} $$ U ¯ $$ \overline{D} $$ D ¯ $$ \overline{D} $$ D ¯ -case; together these provide complete coverage of the RPV-MSSM landscape. This set of signatures is confronted with the existing searches by ATLAS and CMS. We find all signatures have been covered at the LHC, although not at the sensitivity level needed to probe the direct production of all LSP types. For the case of a dominant $$ LL\overline{E} $$ LL E ¯ -operator, we use CheckMATE to quantify the current lower bounds on the supersymmetric masses and find the limits to be comparable to or better than the R-parity conserving case. Our treatment can be easily extended to scenarios with more than one non-zero RPV coupling.