Search for direct top squark pair production in final states with two leptons in $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
Here, the results of a search for direct pair production of top squarks in events with two opposite-charge leptons (electrons or muons) are reported, using 36.1 fb –1 of integrated luminosity from proton–proton collisions at √s=13 TeV collected by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. To cover a range of mass differences between the top squark t ~ and lighter supersymmetric particles, four possible decay modes of the top squark are targeted with dedicated selections: the decay t ~ →bχ ~ ± 1 into a b-quark and the lightest chargino with χ ~ ± 1 →Wχ ~0 1 , the decay t ~ →tχ ~0 1 into an on-shell top quark and the lightest neutralino, the three-body decay t ~ →bWχ ~0 1 and the four-body decay t ~ →bℓνχ ~0 1 . No significant excess of events is observed above the Standard Model background for any selection, and limits on top squarks are set as a function of the t ~ and χ ~0 1 masses. The results exclude at 95% confidence level t ~ masses up to about 720 GeV, extending the exclusion region of supersymmetric parameter space covered by previous searches.