https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s2006-02630-7
Experimental Physics
Detecting metastable staus and gravitinos at the ILC
1
I. Physikalisches Institut, RWTH Aachen, Aachen, Germany
2
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Hamburg, Germany
* e-mail: martyn@desy.de
Received:
13
June
2006
Revised:
30
July
2006
Published online:
16
August
2006
A study of various SUSY scenarios is presented in which the lightest supersymmetric particle is the gravitino 
and the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle is a scalar tau 
with lifetimes ranging from seconds to years. Gravitinos are interesting dark matter candidates which can be produced in decays of heavier sparticles at the International Linear Collider (ILC), but remain undetected in direct searches of astrophysical experiments. We investigate the detection and measurement of metastable staus, which may be copiously produced at the ILC either directly or via cascade decays. A proper choice of the experimental conditions will allow one to collect large samples of s coming to rest in the calorimeters of the ILC detector and to study the subsequent decays 
. Detailed simulations show that the properties of the stau and the gravitino, such as mass and lifetime and mass, can be accurately determined at a future ILC and may provide direct access to the gravitational coupling, respectively Planck scale.
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 2006
