Probing compressed sleptons at the LHC using vector boson fusion processes

The vector boson fusion (VBF) topology at the Large Hadron Collider at 14 TeV provides an opportunity to search for new physics. A feasibility study for the search of sleptons in a compressed mass spectra scenario is presented in the final state of two jets, one or two low p(T) nonresonant leptons, and missing energy. The presence of the VBF tagged jets and missing energy are effective in reducing standard model backgrounds. Using smuon production with a mass difference between (l) over tilde (L) and (chi) over tilde (0)(1) of 5-15 GeV, the significance of observing the signal events is found to be similar to 3-6 sigma for m((l) over tilde) = 115-135 GeV, considering an integrated luminosity of 3000 fb(-1).