A search for squark and gluino production in p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.8 TeV

A search for production of the supersymmetric (SUSY) particles squark ({tilde q}) and gluino ({tilde g}) is being performed using 19 pb{sup {minus}1} p{bar p} collision data collected with the CDF detector during the 1992-1993 Tevatron run at Fermilab. The authors have taken the classic approach of selecting events with high missing transverse energy (E{sub T}) and multiple jets. High E{sub T} is expected in events of interest since the lightest SUSY particle ({tilde Z}{sub 1)} is assumed to be non-interacting but can be very energetic. The most important pairs of decay chains in SUSY events are {tilde q} {yields} qq{bar q}{tilde Z}{sub 1} and {tilde g} {yields} q{bar q}{tilde Z}{sub 1}, or {tilde q} {yields} q{tilde Z}{sub 1} and {tilde g} {yields} q{bar q}{tilde Z}{sub 1}, where the relevant decay processes depend on the relative masses of the {tilde q} and {tilde g}. Additional SUSY particle decay channels through intermediate neutralinos and charginos substantially modify the E{sub T} spectrum and number of jets. The principal backgrounds to this search are W + jets, Z + jets, and QCD multijet production, where some of the leptons or jets are unobserved.