Search for new physics with long-lived particles decaying to photons and missing energy
A search for long-lived neutral particles decaying into a photon and invisible particles is performed. In the context of gauge mediated supersymmetry with the lightest neutralino as the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle and the gravitino as the lightest supersymmetric particle, the neutralino can decay into a gravitino and a photon with a nonzero lifetime. The impact parameter of the photon relative to the beam-beam collision point can be reconstructed using converted photons. The method is sensitive to lifetimes of the order of (0.1 ns). The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.1 \pm 0.1~\rm{fb^{-1}} recorded in the first part of 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC at = 7 TeV. The search is performed using events containing photons, missing transverse energy and jets. Upper limits at the confidence level are presented on the cross section for such particles from pair-production, each of which decays into a photon and invisible particles.