Performance of Methods for Data-Driven Background Estimation in SUSY Searches

Searches for supersymmetry (SUSY) involve a broad range of signatures with jets, leptons, photons, and missing transverse energy (MET). These searches require careful control over backgrounds from standard model processes. Several methods for data-driven background determinations were developed and tested on early LHC $pp$ collision data collected by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV. These data allow us to study QCD backgrounds, to evaluate methods to control jet-energy mis-measurement, to validate data-driven methods for predicting the background MET distribution, and to measure background contributions from processes producing non-prompt leptons or hadrons misidentified as leptons.