Gravitino vs. neutralino LSP at the LHC

Abstract

Abstract Using the latest LHC data, we analyse and compare the lower limits on the masses of gluinos and the lightest stop in two natural supersymmetric motivated scenarios: one with a neutralino being the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP) and the other one with gravitino as the LSP and neutralino as the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle. In the second case our analysis applies to neutralinos promptly decaying to very light gravitinos, which are of cosmological interest, and are generic for low, of order $$ \mathcal{O} $$ O (100) TeV, messenger scale in gauge mediation models. We find that the lower bounds on the gluino and the lightest stop masses are stronger for the gravitino LSP scenarios due to the extra handle from the decay products of neutralinos. Generally, in contrast to the neutralino LSP case the limits now extend to a region of compressed spectrum. In bino scenarios the highest excluded stop mass increases from 1000 GeV to almost 1400 GeV. Additionally, in the higgsino-like NLSP scenario the higgsinos below 650 GeV are universally excluded and the stop mass limit is $$ {m}_{\tilde{t}} $$ m t ˜ > 1150 GeV, whereas there is no limit on stops in the higgsino LSP model for $$ {m}_{\tilde{h}} $$ m h ˜ = 650 GeV. Nevertheless, we find that the low messenger scale still ameliorates the fine tuning in the electroweak potential.