Eur. Phys. J. C (2018) 78: 209
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-5695-2

Special Article - Tools for Experiment and Theory

Realistic simplified gaugino-higgsino models in the MSSM

¹ Sorbonne Universités, Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris 06), UMR 7589, LPTHE, 75005, Paris, France
² CNRS, UMR 7589, LPTHE, 75005, Paris, France
³ Institut Universitaire de France, 103 boulevard Saint-Michel, 75005, Paris, France
⁴ Institut für Theoretische Physik, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 9, 48149, Münster, Germany

^* e-mail: fuks@lpthe.jussieu.fr

Received: 14 November 2017
Accepted: 4 March 2018
Published online: 13 March 2018

Abstract

We present simplified MSSM models for light neutralinos and charginos with realistic mass spectra and realistic gaugino-higgsino mixing, that can be used in experimental searches at the LHC. The formerly used naive approach of defining mass spectra and mixing matrix elements manually and independently of each other does not yield genuine MSSM benchmarks. We suggest the use of less simplified, but realistic MSSM models, whose mass spectra and mixing matrix elements are the result of a proper matrix diagonalisation. We propose a novel strategy targeting the design of such benchmark scenarios, accounting for user-defined constraints in terms of masses and particle mixing. We apply it to the higgsino case and implement a scan in the four relevant underlying parameters for a given set of light neutralino and chargino masses. We define a measure for the quality of the obtained benchmarks, that also includes criteria to assess the higgsino content of the resulting charginos and neutralinos. We finally discuss the distribution of the resulting models in the MSSM parameter space as well as their implications for supersymmetric dark matter phenomenology.