Combined searches for the production of supersymmetric top quark partners in proton–proton collisions at √ s = 13 TeV

Abstract

A combination of searches for top squark pair production using proton–proton collision data at a center of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC, correspond ing to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb−1 collected by the CMS experiment, is presented. Signatures with at least 2 jets and large missing transverse momentum are categorized into events with 0, 1, or 2 leptons. New results for regions of parameter space where the kinematical properties of top squark pair production and top quark pair production are very similar are presented. Depending on the model, the combined result excludes a top squark mass up to 1325 GeV for a mass less neutralino, and a neutralino mass up to 700 GeV for a top squark mass of 1150 GeV. Top squarks with masses from 145 to 295 GeV, for neutralino masses from 0 to 100 GeV, with a mass difference between the top squark and the neutralino in a window of 30 GeV around the mass of the top quark, are excluded for the first time with CMS data. The results of theses searches are also interpreted in an alternative sig nal model of dark matter production via a spin-0 mediator in association with a top quark pair. Upper limits are set on the cross section for mediator particle masses of up to 420 GeV.