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Abstract The possibility in supersymmetric scenarios that the dark matter candidate is a Higgsino-like neutralino means that its production can be associated with Higgs bosons. Taking advantage of this fact, we propose a LHC search strategy for gluinos with$$\tau $$ $\tau$leptons in the final state, coming from the decay of a Higgs boson. We consider the strong production of a pair of gluinos, one of which decays into the Higgsino plus jets while the other decays into the bino plus jets. In turn, this bino decays into the Higgsino plus a Higgs boson which finally decays into a$$\tau $$ $\tau$-lepton pair. Therefore, the experimental signature under study consists of 4 jets, 2$$\tau $$ $\tau$leptons, and a large amount of missing transverse energy. This work represents a proof of principle of a search that is sensitive to a spectrum such that the gluino does not directly decay to the dark matter candidate but to an intermediate electroweakino that then produces Higgs bosons in its subsequent decay. Our cut-based search strategy allows us to reach, for a LHC center-of-mass energy of 14 TeV and a total integrated luminosity of 1 ab$$^{-1}$$ ${}^{-1}$, significances of up to 2 standard deviations, considering systematic uncertainties in the SM background of 30%. The projections for 3 ab$$^{-1}$$ ${}^{-1}$are encouraging, with significances at the evidence level, which in more optimistic experimental scenarios could exceed 4 standard deviations. 

The higgsino Lightest Supersymmetric Particle (LSP) scenario opens up the possibility of decays of strongly produced particles to an intermediate neutralino, due to the Yukawa-suppressed direct decays to the higgsino. Those decays produce multijet signals with a Higgs or a Z boson being produced in the decay of the intermediate neutralino to the LSP. In this paper, we study the discovery prospects of squarks that produce b-jets and leptons in the final state. Our collider analysis provides signal significances at the 3σ level for luminosities of 1 ab−1, and at the 5σ level if we project these results for 3 ab−1.