The lighter mass eigenstate ($\widetilde{ t}_1$) of the two top squarks, the scalar superpartners of the top quark, is extremely difficult to discover if it is almost degenerate with the lightest neutralino ($\widetilde{ \chi}_1^0$), the lightest and stable supersymmetric particle in the R-parity conserving supersymmetry. The current experimental bound on $\widetilde{ t}_1$ mass in this scenario stands only around 200 GeV. For such a light $\widetilde{ t}_1$, the heavier top squark ($\widetilde{ t}_2$) can also be around the TeV scale. Moreover, the high value of the higgs ($h$) mass prefers the left and right handed top squarks to be highly mixed allowing the possibility of a considerable branching ratio for $\widetilde{ t}_2 \to \widetilde{ t}_1 h$ and $\widetilde{ t}_2 \to \widetilde{ t}_1 Z$. In this paper, we explore the above possibility together with the pair production of $\widetilde{ t}_2$ $\widetilde{ t}_2^*$ giving rise to the spectacular di-boson + missing transverse energy final state. For an approximately 1 TeV $\widetilde{ t}_2$ and a few hundred GeV $\widetilde{ t}_1$ the final state particles can be moderately boosted which encourages us to propose a novel search strategy employing the jet substructure technique to tag the boosted $h$ and $Z$. The reconstruction of the $h$ and $Z$ momenta also allows us to construct the stransverse mass $M_{ T2}$ providing an additional efficient handle to fight the backgrounds. We show that a 4--5$\sigma$ signal can be observed at the 14 TeV LHC for $\sim$ 1 TeV $\widetilde{ t}_2$ with 100 fb$^{ -1}$ integrated luminosity.
Categories: hep-ph