Searching for light higgsinos with b-jets and missing leptons

A recently proposed class of supersymmetric models predicts rather light and nearly mass-degenerate higgsinos, while the other superparticles are significantly heavier. In this paper we study the early LHC phenomenology of a benchmark model of this kind. If the squarks and gluinos, and in particular the lighter stop, are still light enough to be within reach, then evidence for our model can be found in hadronic SUSY searches. Moreover, with dedicated searches it will be possible to distinguish the light higgsino model from generic SUSY models with a bino LSP. Search channels with b-jets and with isolated leptons play a crucial role for model discrimination.