Gauginos as a signal for supersymmetry atpp¯colliders

We present a comprehensive analysis of the signals from the pair production of the mass eigenstates (W̃, Z̃, and γ̃) of the gauge-Higgs-fermion system for both CERN and Fermilab Tevatron energies, assuming that γ̃ is relatively light (≲10 GeV) and escapes detection. The effect of varying the mixings and the mass spectrum of the scalar fermions is also discussed for a general minimal supersymmetry model, assuming only that γ̃ is light. Signals from both the hadronic and leptonic decays of W̃ and Z̃ are studied, incorporating cuts, triggers, and experimental resolutions appropriate to the UA1 detector and Collider Detector at Fermilab. We show that if the decays W→W̃Z̃ and $Z^0$→W̃W̃¯ are kinematically accessible, there is a substantial level of (i) jet(s) + p${/}_T$ events from the hadronic decays of W̃ and Z̃, (ii) a comparable level of background-free multilepton + p${/}_T$ events, essentially free from hadronic activity from the leptonic decay of W̃ and Z̃, and (iii) jet(s) + lepton(s) + p${/}_T$ events from the leptonic decay of one of the gauginos and hadronic decay of the other. We present rates and distributions for these events and show that a conclusive absence of such a signal could lead to more stringent direct mass limits on masses of the W̃ and Z̃ than are currently available.