The four LEP collaborations, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, have searched for the neutral Higgs bosons which are predicted by the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The data of the four collaborations are statistically combined and examined for their consistency with the background hypothesis and with a possible Higgs boson signal. The combined LEP data show no significant excess of events which would indicate the production of Higgs bosons. The search results are used to set upper bounds on the cross-sections of various Higgs-like event topologies. The results are interpreted within the MSSM in a number of "benchmark" models, including CP-conserving and CP-violating scenarios. These interpretations lead in all cases to large exclusions in the MSSM parameter space. Absolute limits are set on the parameter tan β and, in some scenarios, on the masses of neutral Higgs bosons.

DELPHI data collected at centre-of-mass energies up to 208 GeV have been analysed to search for charginos, neutralinos and sfermions in the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) with R-parity conservation. No evidence for a signal was found in any of the channels. The results of each search were used to derive limits on production cross-sections and particle masses. In addition, the combined result of all searches excludes regions in the parameter space of the constrained MSSM, leading to limits on the mass of the Lightest Supersymmetric Particle and other supersymmetric particles.

Single photons detected by the DELPHI experiment at LEP2 in the years 1997-2000 are reanalysed to investigate the existence of a single extra dimension in a modified ADD scenario with slightly warped large extra dimensions. The data collected at centre-of-mass energies between 180 and 209 GeV for an integrated luminosity of ∼650 pb −1 agree with the predictions of the Standard Model and allow a limit to be set on graviton emission in one large extra dimension. The limit obtained on the fundamental mass scale M D is 1.69 TeV/c 2 at 95% CL, with an expected limit of 1.71 TeV/c 2 .

Soft photons inside hadronic jets converted in front of the DELPHI main tracker (TPC) in events of qq disintegrations of the Z 0 were studied in the kinematic range 0.2 < E γ < 1 GeV and transverse momentum with respect to the closest jet direction p T < 80 MeV/c. A clear excess of photons in the experimental data as compared to the Monte Carlo predictions is observed. This excess (uncorrected for the photon detection efficiency) is (1.17 ± 0.06 ± 0.27) × 10 −3 γ/jet in the specified kinematic region, while the expected level of the inner hadronic bremsstrahlung (which is not included in the Monte Carlo) is (0.340 ± 0.001 ± 0.038) × 10 −3 γ/jet. The ratio of the excess to the predicted bremsstrahlung rate is then (3.4 ± 0.2 ± 0.8), which is similar in strength to the anomalous soft photon signal observed in fixed target experiments with hadronic beams.

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