Extracting the wavefunction of the LSP at the LHC

We consider associated production of squarks and gluinos with the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), or states nearly degenerate in mass with it. Though sub-dominant to pair production of color SU(3)-charged superpartners, these processes are directly sensitive to the wavefunction composition of the lightest neutralinos. Exploiting event-shape variables - including some introduced here for the first time - we are able to identify the composition of the LSP by selecting events involving a single high-p(T) jet recoiling against missing transverse energy. We illustrate the proposed technique on a set of benchmark cases and propose methods for applying these results in more realistic experimental environments. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.