Experimental constraints on gluino masses and supersymmetric theories

Abstract

We extend the analyses of Fayet, and Fayet and Farrar, of experimental searches for gluinos, the supersymmetric partners of gluons. Because of their large production cross sections, present data appears to exclude gluino masses below 3.5-6 GeV/c2 and may be more restrictive. Lifetime considerations give an upper limit on scalar quark masses and on the scale of supersymmetry breaking, and experiments sensitive to missing energy will provide interesting limits on the latter. Since gluinos remain very light in many models, they will either be detected soon or many supersymmetric theories will be excluded.