A search for supersymmetric particles in events with high transverse
momentum jets and a large missing transverse energy signature is con-
ducted using 11.7 fb of data, collected with a center-of-mass collision
energy of 8 TeV by the CMS detector. The dimensionless kinematic
variable alphaT is used to select events with genuine missing transverse
energy signatures. Standard Model backgrounds are estimated through
the use of data driven control samples. No excess over Standard Model
expectations is found. Exclusion limits on squark and gluino masses
are set at the 95% confidence level in the parameter space of a range of
supersymmetric simplified models.
Results of benchmarking the Level-1 (the first line of the CMS trigger
system) single jet and hadronic transverse energy trigger efficiencies,
before and after the implementation of a change to the Level-1 jet
clustering algorithm are presented. This was introduced to negate an
increase in trigger cross-section, which can be attributed to soft jets
from secondary interactions. Similar performance is observed for all L1
quantities before and after this change.
Furthermore, a templated method to estimate the Standard Model
background distribution of the number of jets originating from a b-quark
within a supersymmetric search is validated in data and simulation.
Applicable to searches sensitive to gluino induced third-generation signatures, this technique is utilised as a crosscheck to the results of the
alphaT analysis. Standard Model background predictions from the template
fits are compared to those from the alphaT search in the hadronic signal
region, where good agreement between the two methods is observed.