# The Lower Mass Limit on the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle, using ALEPH data up to 188.6 GeV

## 1 Introduction

The ALEPH detector at LEP collected close to 175 $`\mathrm{pb}^1`$ data at a centre-of-mass energy of 188.6 GeV. Searches in this data for the decays of Supersymmetric particles have shown no evidence for supersymmetry. This data can be interpreted as excluded regions in the MSSM parameter space. All conventions and notations are consistent with reference , where the searches for charginos and neutralinos using data taken at centre-of-mass energies near 183 GeV are reported. These exclusions extend the previous results using the ALEPH data given in references . The results of the searches are interpreted as exclusions in the MSSM parameter space assuming that R-parity is conserved and the neutralino is the LSP. Sneutrino masses of less than 42 $`\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}^2`$ are already excluded by limits on $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_Z`$ .

## 2 Search for gauginos

The search for gauginos was performed first under the assumption of high slepton mass. The visible topologies and energy in gaugino pair production depend on the decay chain of the gaugino to LSP and on the mass difference between the gaugino and the LSP. Various topological searches are used, described in reference . The selections were reoptimised to give the best expected limit (in the absence of a signal) for the higher energy and luminosity.

In total 25 chargino and 41 neutralino candidates were observed in at least one of the selections with the expected backgrounds from standard model processes being 23.0 and 44.3 events respectively. For the case of high sfermion mass the chargino will predominately decay via a W to the neutralino and the next to lightest neutralino ($`\chi ^{}`$) will decay via a Z. For the topologies sensitive to these cases the number of data events were 10 (4) for chargino (neutralino) selections with an expectation of 6.8 (5.3) events from standard model processes. The data sample is consistent with the standard model expectations and so limits on the production cross-sections of charginos and neutralinos are derived. Only in the case of the WW background to the acoplanar lepton search are the expected backgrounds corrected for in the limits.

The limits for gaugino production close to the kinematic limit are shown in figures 1,2 for the case of heavy sfermions. These limits are shown as excluded contours in the $`\mu `$ v $`M_2`$ parameter space for $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =\sqrt{2}`$ in 3. Using these exclusions all points in the MSSM parameter space with neutralino masses of less than 32.3 $`\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}^2`$ are excluded for any $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ and $`m_0=500\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}^2`$.

## 3 Search with low slepton mass

The case of low slepton mass is also considered. The chargino and neutralino pair production cross-sections have a dependence on the value of $`m_0`$ due to the s-channel exchange of a $`(Z/\gamma )^{}`$ and t-channel interference terms for the exchange of a $`\stackrel{~}{\nu }_e`$ or $`\stackrel{~}{\mathrm{e}}`$. Also the branching ratio of leptonic decays are enhanced and invisible modes, for example $`\chi ^{}\nu \stackrel{~}{\nu }`$, become kinematically allowed. The search for direct slepton production does however allow additional exclusions and the LEP 1 limit on the non-standard model contributions to $`\mathrm{\Gamma }_Z`$  also excludes part of the parameter space. The combined exclusion for $`m_0=75\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}^2`$ is shown in figure 4. Using the combination of these searches all points in parameter space with $`M_\chi <32.3\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}^2`$ are excluded for all $`m_0`$.

## 4 Conclusion

The overall limit limit on the LSP mass in the MSSM for the entire $`\mu `$, $`M_2`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta `$ and $`m_0`$ parameter space is $`M_{LSP}>32.3\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}^2`$. This limit is set at the point of large $`m_0`$, $`\mathrm{tan}\beta =1`$, $`M_2=54.5\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}^2`$ and $`\mu =68.3\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}^2`$, here the lightest Higgs mass is above 96 $`\mathrm{GeV}/\mathrm{c}^2`$ for large $`m_A`$ and stop mixing. The sensitivity of the ALEPH Higgs boson searches  at 189 GeV does not allow the exclusion of this point.