Flavour-violating decays of mixed top-charm squarks at the LHC

Abstract

Abstract We explore signatures related to squark decays in the framework of non-minimally flavour-violating supersymmetry. We consider a simplified model where the lightest squark consists of an admixture of charm and top flavour. By recasting the existing LHC searches for top and charm squarks, we show that the limits on squark masses from these analyses are significantly weakened when the top-charm mixing is sizeable. We propose a dedicated search for squarks based on the $$tc+{E_{\mathrm {T}}^{\mathrm {miss}}}$$ tc+ETmiss final state which enhances the experimental sensitivity for the case of high mixing, and we map its expected reach for the forthcoming runs of the LHC. We emphasize the role of analyses requiring a jet tagged as produced by the fragmentation of a charm quark in understanding the squark mixing pattern, thus providing a novel handle on new physics. Our results show that, in order to achieve full coverage of the parameter space of supersymmetric models, it is necessary to extend current experimental search programmes with analyses specifically targeting the cases where the lightest top-partner is a mixed state.