Removing gaps in the exclusion of top squark parameter space

Light stops are a hallmark of the most natural realizations of weak-scale supersymmetry. While stops have been extensively searched for, there remain open gaps around and below the top mass, due to similarities of stop and top signals with current statistics. We propose a new fast-track avenue to improve light stop searches for R-parity-conserving supersymmetry by comparing top cross section measurements to the theoretical prediction. Stop masses below ∼180GeV can now be ruled out for a light neutralino. The possibility of a stop signal contaminating the top mass measurement is also briefly addressed.