Phenomenological Constraints on Extra-Dimensional Scalars

We examine whether the ATLAS detector can be sensitive to extra-dimensional scalars (as opposed to components of higher-dimensional tensors which look like 4D scalars), in scenarios having the extra-dimensional Planck scale in the TeV range and $n \ge 2$ unwarped extra dimensions. Such scalars appear as partners of the graviton in virtually all higher-dimensional supersymmetric theories. Using the scalar's lowest-dimension effective couplings to quarks and gluons, we compute the rate for the production of a hard jet together with missing energy. We find a nontrivial range of graviscalar couplings to which ATLAS could be sensitive, with experiments being more sensitive to couplings to gluons than to quarks. Graviscalar emission increases the missing-energy signal by adding to graviton production, and so complicates the inference of the extra-dimensional Planck scale from an observed rate. Because graviscalar differential cross sections resemble those for gravitons, it is unlikely that these can be experimentally distinguished from one another should a missing energy signal be observed.