https://doi.org/10.1140/epjc/s10052-025-14200-2
Regular Article - Theoretical Physics
Machine learning electroweakino production
1
Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie (LPSC), Université Grenoble-Alpes, 53 Avenue des Martyrs, 38026, Grenoble, France
2
Institute of Theoretical Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5, 02-093, Warsaw, Poland
3
Theory Center, IPNS, KEK, 1-1 Oho, 305-0801, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
4
The Graduate University of Advanced Studies (Sokendai), 1-1 Oho, 305-0801, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
5
Kavli IPMU (WPI), University of Tokyo, 5-1-5 Kashiwanoha, 277-8583, Kashiwa, Chiba, Japan
Received:
7
February
2025
Accepted:
21
April
2025
Published online:
2
June
2025
The system of light electroweakinos and heavy squarks gives rise to one of the most challenging signatures to detect at the LHC. It consists of missing transverse energy recoiled against a few hadronic jets originating either from QCD radiation or squark decays. The analysis generally suffers from the large irreducible 
(
) background. In this study, we explore Machine Learning (ML) methods for efficient signal/background discrimination. Our best attempt uses both reconstructed (jets, missing transverse energy, etc.) and low-level (particle-flow) objects. We find that the discrimination performance improves as the 
threshold for soft particles is lowered from 10 to 1 GeV, at the expense of larger systematic uncertainty. In many cases, the ML method provides a factor two enhancement in 
from a simple kinematical selection. The sensitivity on the squark-elecroweakino mass plane is derived with this method, assuming the Run-3 and HL-LHC luminosities. Moreover, we investigate the relations between input features and the network’s classification performance to reveal the physical information used in the background/signal discrimination process.
© The Author(s) 2025
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Funded by SCOAP3.
