Search for new phenomena with the M T 2 variable in the all-hadronic final state produced in proton-proton collisions at s = 13 TeV

Abstract

A search for new phenomena is performed using events with jets and significant transverse momentum imbalance, as inferred through the $M_{T2}$ variable. The results are based on a sample of proton-proton collisions collected in 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 $\text{TeV}$ with the CMS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 ${\text{fb}}^{\text{-1}}$ . No excess event yield is observed above the predicted standard model background, and the results are interpreted as exclusion limits at 95% confidence level on the masses of predicted particles in a variety of simplified models of R-parity conserving supersymmetry. Depending on the details of the model, 95% confidence level lower limits on the gluino (light-flavor squark) masses are placed up to 2025 (1550) $\text{GeV}$ . Mass limits as high as 1070 (1175) $\text{GeV}$ are set on the masses of top (bottom) squarks. Information is provided to enable re-interpretation of these results, including model-independent limits on the number of non-standard model events for a set of simplified, inclusive search regions.