Sparticle and Higgs Production and Detection at LEPII in two Supergravity Models

Abstract

We study the most promising signals for supersymmetry at LEPII in the context of two well motivated supergravity models: (i) the minimal $SU(5)$ supergravity model including the stringent constraints from proton stability and a not too young Universe, and (ii) a recently proposed string-inspired no-scale flipped $SU(5)$ supergravity model. Our computations span the neutralino, chargino, slepton, and Higgs sectors together with their interconnections in this class of models. We find that the number of `mixed' (1-lepton + 2-jets + $\slash{p}$) events occuring in the decay of pair-produced charginos ($χ^\pm_1$) is quite significant (per ${\cal L}=100\ipb$) for both models and that these predictions do not overlap. That is, if $m_{χ^\pm_1}<100\GeV$ then LEPII should be able to exclude at least one of the two models. In the no-scale flipped $SU(5)$ model we find that the number of acoplanar di-electron events from selectron pair production should allow for exploration of selectron masses up to the kinematical limit and chargino masses indirectly as high as 150 GeV. We find that the cross section $e^+e^-\to Z^*h$ deviates negligibly from the SM result in the minimal model, whereas it can be as much as $1/3$ lower in the flipped model. The usually neglected invisible mode $h\toχ^0_1χ^0_1$ can erode the preferred $h\to 2\,{\rm jets}$ signal by as much as $40\%$ in these models. We conclude that the charged slepton sector is a deeper probe than the chargino/neutralino or Higgs sectors of the flipped $SU(5)$ model at LEPII, while the opposite is true for the minimal $SU(5)$ model where the slepton sector is no probe at all.