Derek Barge (UCSB)
A Search for New Physics in the Opposite-Sign Dilepton Channel with Data from the First Run of the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment
A search for new physics with data from the first run of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is presented in final states with a pair of opposite-sign leptons, hadronic activity, and missing transverse energy. The search uses 5 inverse femtobarns of 7 TeV center-of-mass energy provided by the LHC and recorded with the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment. The search probes models of dilepton production with heavy, colored objects that decay to final states including invisible particles, leading to very large hadronic activity and missing transverse energy. No evidence for an event yield in excess of the standard model expectations is found. Upper limits on the BSM contributions to the signal regions are deduced from the results, which are used to exclude regions of the parameter space in the constrained minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model and the T1lh simplified model spectra. Additional information related to detector efficiencies and response is provided to allow testing specific models of BSM physics not explicitly considered.