Reconstructing sparticle mass spectra using hadronic decays

Most sparticle decay cascades envisaged at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)involve hadronic decays of intermediate particles. We use state-of-the arttechniques based on the \kt jet algorithm to reconstruct the resulting hadronicfinal states for simulated LHC events in a number of benchmark supersymmetricscenarios. In particular, we show that a general method of selectingpreferentially boosted massive particles such as W, Z or Higgs bosons decayingto jets, using sub-jets found by the \kt algorithm, suppresses QCD backgroundsand thereby enhances the observability of signals that would otherwise beindistinct. Consequently, measurements of the supersymmetric mass spectrum atthe per-cent level can be obtained from cascades including the hadronic decaysof such massive intermediate bosons.Comment: 1+29 pages, 12 figure