MSSM Higgs sector at the one-loop level

This work provides an elementary introduction to the Higgs sector renormalisation within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) framework. The main aim of the paper is to clarify some technical details that are usually omitted in the existing literature. The MSSM tree-level relation m _h ² + m _H ² = m _A ² + m _Z ² is renormalised using the standard technique of direct computation of the relevant one-loop Feynman diagrams. The calculation is performed within the unitary gauge and the definition of the renormalised parameters is briefly reviewed. The expected cancellation of ultraviolet divergences is explicitly checked and the well-known leading-log term is recovered. All the necessary ingredients of the computations are summarized in the appendices which makes the work more self-contained.     

Constraints on the MSSM from the Higgs sector

We discuss the constraints on supersymmetry in the Higgs sector arising from LHC searches, rare B decays and dark matter direct detection experiments. We show that constraints derived on the mass of the lightest h ⁰ and the CP-odd A ⁰ bosons from these searches are covering a larger fraction of the SUSY parameter space compared to searches for strongly interacting supersymmetric particle partners. We discuss the implications of a mass determination for the lightest Higgs boson in the range 123<M _h <127?GeV, inspired by the intriguing hints reported by the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations, as well as those of a non-observation of the lightest Higgs boson for MSSM scenarios not excluded at the end of 2012 by LHC and direct dark matter searches and their implications on LHC SUSY searches.     

Towards high-precision predictions for the MSSM Higgs sector

The status of the evaluation of the MSSM Higgs sector is reviewed. The phenomenological impact of recently obtained corrections is discussed. In particular it is shown that the upper bound on m_h within the MSSM is shifted upwards. Consequently, lower limits on obtained by confronting the upper bound as function of with the lower bound on m_h from Higgs searches are significantly weakened. Furthermore, th e region in the M_A--plane where the coupling of the lightest Higgs boson to down-type fermions is suppressed is modified. The presently not calculated higher-order corrections to the Higgs-boson mass matrix are estimated to shift the mass of the lightest Higgs boson by up to 3 GeV. Received: 12 December 2002 / Published online: 3 March 2003 RID="a" ID="a" e-mail: giuseppe.degrassi@roma3.infn.it RID="b" ID="b" e-mail: Sven.Heinemeyer@physik.uni-muenchen.de RID="c" ID="c" e-mail: hollik@mppmu.mpg.de RID="d" ID="d" e-mail: slavich@mppmu.mpg.de RID="e" ID="e" e-mail: Georg.Weiglein@durham.ac.uk     

The Higgs boson sector of the complex MSSM in the Feynman-diagrammatic approach

In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with complex parameters (cMSSM) we calculate higher order corrections to the Higgs boson sector in the Feynman-diagrammatic approach using the on-shell renormalization scheme. The application of this approach to the cMSSM, being complementary to existing approaches, is analyzed in detail. Numerical examples for the leading fermionic corrections, including the leading two-loop effects, are presented. Numerical agreement within 10% with other approaches is found for small and moderate mixing in the scalar top sector. The leading fermionic corrections, supplemented by the full logarithmic one-loop and the leading two-loop contributions are implemented into the public Fortran code FeynHiggsFastC. Received: 6 August 2001 / Revised version: 8 October 2001 / Published online: 21 November 2001     

The one-loop renormalization of the MSSM Higgs sector and its application to the neutral scalar Higgs masses

The structure of the Higgs sector in the minimal supersymmetric standard model is reviewed at the oneloop level. An on-shell renormalization scheme of the MSSM Higgs sector is presented in detail together with the complete list of formulae for the neutral Higgs masses at the one-loop level. The results of a complete one-loop calculation for the mass spectrum of the neutral MSSM Higgs bosons and the quality of simpler Born-like approximations are discussed for sfermion and gaugino masses in the range of the electroweak scale.     

Studying the MSSM Higgs sector by forward proton tagging at the LHC

We show that the use of forward proton detectors at the LHC installed at 220 m and 420 m distance around ATLAS and/or CMS can provide important information on the Higgs sector of the MSSM. We analyse central exclusive production of the neutral -even Higgs bosons h and H and their decays into bottom quarks, τ leptons and W bosons in various MSSM benchmark scenarios. Using plausible estimates for the achievable experimental efficiencies and the relevant background processes, we find that the prospective sensitivity of the diffractive Higgs production will allow one to probe interesting regions of the M_A–tanβ parameter plane of the MSSM. Central exclusive production of the -even Higgs bosons of the MSSM may provide a unique opportunity to access the bottom Yukawa couplings of the Higgs bosons up to masses of M_H≲ 250 GeV. We also discuss the prospects for identifying the -odd Higgs boson, A, in diffractive processes at the LHC.     

MSSM Higgs sector CP violation at photon colliders: revisited

The CP violating phases in soft SUSY breaking terms may induce indirect CP violation in the neutral Higgs boson sector through SUSY particle loops as well as direct CP violation in the γγ→H_i (i=1,2,3) through CP violating vertices. We present a complete analysis of the MSSM Higgs sector CP violation at photon colliders including the chargino loop contributions in the regime , where the CP violating mixing in the neutral Higgs sector is very strongly influenced by the scalar top loop, more so than the chargino and neutralino ones. However, the CP violating phases of the higgsino and wino mass parameters may still generate direct CP violation in γγ→H_i. In this process, the CP violating phenomena become very rich, and thus we study the production rates and polarization asymmetries in the Higgs production in detail. Photon colliders with high luminosity and well controlled polarized initial photon beams are indispensable in determining the CP properties of neutral Higgs bosons. PACS 14.80.Cp; 12.60.Jv; 11.30.Er     

Strangephilic Higgs bosons in the MSSM

We suggest a new CPX-derived scenario for the search for strangephilic MSSM Higgs bosons at the Tevatron and the LHC, in which all neutral and charged Higgs bosons decay predominantly into pairs of strange quarks and into a strange and a charm quark, respectively. The proposed scenario is realized within a particular region of the MSSM parameter space and requires large values of tan?β, where threshold radiative corrections are significant to render the effective strange-quark Yukawa coupling dominant. Experimental searches for neutral Higgs bosons based on the identification of b-quark jets or τ leptons may miss a strangephilic Higgs boson and its existence could be inferred indirectly by searching for hadronically decaying charged Higgs bosons. Potential strategies and experimental challenges to search for strangephilic Higgs bosons at the Tevatron and the LHC are discussed.     

Neutral Higgs sector of the MSSM with explicit CP violation and non-holomorphic soft breaking

Using the effective potential method, we computed one-loop corrections to the mass matrix of neutral Higgs bosons of the Non-Holomorphic Supersymmetric Standard Model (NHSSM) with explicit CP violation, where the radiative corrections due to the quarks and squarks of the third generation were taken into account. We observed that the non-holomorphic trilinear couplings can compete with the holomorphic ones in CP violating issues for the mass and mixing of the neutral Higgs bosons.     

MSSM at future Higgs factories

In this work,we study the implications of Higgs precision measurements at future Higgs factories for the MSSM parameter space,focusing on the dominant stop sector contributions.We perform a multivariable fit to both the signal strength for various Higgs decay channels at Higgs factories and the Higgs mass.The χ²fit results show sensitivity to m_A,tan β,stop mass parameter m_SUSY,and the stop left-right mixing parameter Xt.We also study the impact of the Higgs mass prediction on the MSSM and compare the sensitivities of different Higgs factories.     

Interpreting the LHC Higgs search results in the MSSM

Recent results reported by the ATLAS and CMS experiments on the search for a SM-like Higgs boson both show an excess for a Higgs mass near 125 GeV, which is mainly driven by the γγ   and ZZ^?$Z{Z}^{?}$ decay channels, but also receives some support from channels with a lower mass resolution. We discuss the implications of this possible signal within the context of the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), taking into account previous limits from Higgs searches at LEP, the Tevatron and the LHC. The consequences for the remaining MSSM parameter space are investigated. Under the assumption of a Higgs signal we derive new lower bounds on the tree-level parameters of the MSSM Higgs sector. We also discuss briefly an alternative interpretation of the excess in terms of the heavy CP-even Higgs boson, a scenario which is found to be still viable.     

Charged Higgs bosons in the next-to MSSM (NMSSM)

The charged Higgs boson decays H^±→W^±A₁ and H^±→W^±H_i are studied in the framework of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM). It is found that the decay rate for H^±→W^±A₁ can exceed the rates for the τ^±ν and tb channels both below and above the top–bottom threshold. The dominance of H^±→W^±A₁ is most readily achieved when A₁ has a large doublet component and small mass. We also study the production process pp→H^±A₁ at the LHC followed by the decay H^±→W^±A₁, which leads to the signature W^±A₁A₁. We suggest that pp→H^±A₁ is a promising discovery channel for a light charged Higgs boson in the NMSSM with small or moderate tanβ and dominant decay mode H^±→W^±A₁. This W^±A₁A₁ signature can also arise from the Higgsstrahlung process pp→W^±H₁ followed by the decay H₁→A₁A₁. It is shown that there exist regions of parameter space where these processes can have comparable cross sections and we suggest that their respective signals can be distinguished at the LHC by using appropriate reconstruction methods. PACS  12.60.Fr; 14.80.Cp     

The Higgs mass in the CP violating MSSM,NMSSM and beyond

We discuss the automatised calculation of the Higgs mass in renormalisable supersymmetric models with complex parameters at the two-loop level. Our setup is based on the public codes SARAH and SPheno, which can now compute the two-loop corrections to masses of all neutral scalars in such theories. The generic ansatz for these calculations and the handling of the ‘Goldstone Boson catastrophe’ is described. It is shown that we find perfect agreement with other existing two-loop calculations performed in the \(\overline{\mathrm {DR}}\) scheme. We also use the functionality to derive results for the MSSM and NMSSM not available before: the Higgs mass in the constrained version of the complex MSSM and the impact of CP phases in the two-loop corrections beyond \(O(\alpha _s \alpha _t)\) for the scale-invariant NMSSM are briefly analysed.     

MSSM Higgs searches in multi-b-jet final states at the LHC

This paper discusses the possibility to observe a signal from MSSM Higgs boson decays into final states containing four b-jets. Two specific channels are considered: bb?H and bb?A production with H,A → bb?, for large values of m_H, m_A and tan β, and H → hh → bb?bb? decays for 150 GeV < m_H < 2m_t and for low values of tan β. Both channels are difficult to extract because of the very large reducible and irreducible QCD backgrounds. Even with an ultimate integrated luminosity, expected per LHC experiment, of 3 · 10⁵ pb^-1, the region of the MSSM parameter space covered by these channels does not extend the reach beyond that accessible to other channels that were studied in the past. Nevertheless, their observation would help in constraining the couplings and branching ratios of the MSSM Higgs bosons.     

SUSY background to neutral MSSM Higgs boson searches

Within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) the production and decay of superpartners can give rise to backgrounds for Higgs boson searches. Here MSSM background processes to the vector boson fusion channel with the Higgs boson decaying into two tau leptons or two W-bosons are investigated, giving rise to dilepton plus missing transverse momentum signals of the Higgs boson. Starting from a scenario with relatively small masses of the supersymmetric (SUSY) particles, with concomitant large cross section of the background processes, one obtains a first conservative estimate of the background. Light chargino pair production plus two jets, lightest and next-to-lightest neutralino production plus two jets as well as slepton pair production plus two jets are identified as important contributions to the irreducible SUSY background. Light chargino and next-to-lightest neutralino production plus two jets and next-to-lightest neutralino pair production plus two jets give rise to reducible backgrounds, which can be larger than the irreducible ones in some scenarios. The relevant distributions are shown and additional cuts for MSSM background reduction are discussed. Extrapolation to larger squark masses is performed and shows that MSSM backgrounds are quite small for squark masses at the current exclusion limits.     

Search for neutral MSSM Higgs bosons at LEP

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 cosβ and, in some scenarios, on the masses of neutral Higgs bosons.