A search for new phenomena is performed in
final states containing one or more jets and an imbalance in
transverse momentum in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass
energy of 13 TeV. The analysed data sample, recorded with
the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, corresponds to an inte-
grated luminosity of 2.3 fb
−
1
. Several kinematic variables
are employed to suppress the dominant background, mul-
tijet production, as well as to discriminate between other
standard model and new physics processes. The search pro-
vides sensitivity to a broad range of new-physics models that
yield a stable weakly interacting massive particle. The num-
ber of observed candidate events is found to agree with the
expected contributions from standard model processes, and
the result is interpreted in the mass parameter space of four-
teen simplified supersymmetric models that assume the pair
production of gluinos or squarks and a range of decay modes.
For models that assume gluino pair production, masses up to
1575 and 975 GeV are excluded for gluinos and neutralinos,
respectively. For models involving the pair production of top
squarks and compressed mass spectra, top squark masses up
to 400 GeV are excluded.