Search for neutral Higgs bosons in CP-conserving and CP-violating MSSM scenarios

This report summarizes the final results from the OPAL collaboration on searches for neutral Higgs bosons predicted by the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). CP-conserving and, for the first time at LEP, CP-violating scenarios are studied. New scenarios are also included, which aim to set the stage for Higgs searches at future colliders. The results are based on the data collected with the OPAL detector at e ⁺ e^- centre-of-mass energies up to 209 GeV. The data are consistent with the prediction of the Standard Model with no Higgs boson produced. Model-independent limits are derived for the cross-sections of a number of event topologies motivated by predictions of the MSSM. Limits on Higgs boson masses and other MSSM parameters are obtained for a number of representative MSSM benchmark scenarios. For example, in the CP-conserving scenario m _h-max where the MSSM parameters are adjusted to predict the largest range of values for m _h at each , and for a top quark mass of 174.3 GeV, the domain is excluded at the 95% confidence level and Higgs boson mass limits of m _h > 84.5 GeV and m _A > 85.0 GeV are obtained. For the CP-violating benchmark scenario CPX which, by construction, enhances the CP-violating effects in the Higgs sector, the domain is excluded but no universal limit can be set on the Higgs boson masses.Received: 6 April 2004, Revised: 8 June 2004, Published online: 12 August 2004     

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.     

MSSM Higgs boson searches at the Tevatron and the LHC: Impact of different benchmark scenarios

The Higgs boson search has shifted from LEP2 to the Tevatron and will subsequently move to the LHC. The current limits from the Tevatron and the prospective sensitivities at the LHC are often interpreted in specific MSSM scenarios. For heavy Higgs boson production and subsequent decay into or τ⁺τ^–, the present Tevatron data allow one to set limits in the M_A–tan β plane for small M_A and large tan β values. Similar channels have been explored for the LHC, where the discovery reach extends to higher values of M_A and smaller tan β. Searches for MSSM charged Higgs bosons, produced in top decays or in association with top quarks, have also been investigated at the Tevatron and the LHC. We analyze the current Tevatron limits and prospective LHC sensitivities. We discuss how robust they are with respect to variations of the other MSSM parameters and possible improvements of the theoretical predictions for Higgs boson production and decay. It is shown that the inclusion of supersymmetric radiative corrections to the production cross sections and decay widths leads to important modifications of the present limits on the MSSM parameter space. The impact on the region where only the lightest MSSM Higgs boson can be detected at the LHC is also analyzed. We propose to extend the existing benchmark scenarios by including additional values of the higgsino mass parameter μ. This affects only slightly the search channels for a SM-like Higgs boson, while having a major impact on the searches for non-standard MSSM Higgs bosons.     

Final results from DELPHI on the searches for SM and MSSM neutral Higgs bosons

These final results from DELPHI searches for the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson, together with benchmark scans of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) neutral Higgs bosons, used data taken at centre-of-mass energies between 200 and 209 GeV with a total integrated luminosity of 224 pb^-1. The data from 192 to 202 GeV are reanalysed with improved b-tagging for MSSM final states decaying to four b-quarks. The 95% confidence level lower mass bound on the Standard Model Higgs boson is 114.1 GeV/c ². Limits are also given on the lightest scalar and pseudo-scalar Higgs bosons of the MSSM.Received: 7 March 2003, Revised: 30 September 2003, Published online: 3 December 2003     

Higgs boson searches at the Tevatron

This article reviews the Higgs searches at the Tevatron, as presented over the summer of 2012; both standard model (SM) and beyond the standard model (BSM) results are discussed as detailed (arXiv: 1207.0449; Phys. Rev. Lett., 2012, 109: 071804; Phys. Rev. D, 2012, 85: 032005). We discuss the combination of searches by the CDF and D0 Collaborations for the standard model Higgs boson in the mass range 100–200 GeV/c ² produced in the the gg → H, WH, ZH, t{ie27-1}H, and vector boson fusion production modes, and decaying in the H → b{ie27-2}, H → W ⁺ W ^?, H → ZZ, H → τ ⁺ τ ^?, and H → γγ modes. The data, collected at the Fermilab Tevatron collider in p{ie27-3} collisions at {ie27-4} TeV, correspond to integrated luminosities of up to 10 fb^?1. In the absence of signal, we expect to exclude the regions 100<m _H < 120 GeV/c ² and 139<m _H < 184 GeV/c ². We exclude, at the 95% C.L., two regions: 100<m _H < 103 GeV/c ², and 147<m _H < 180 GeV/c ². We observe a significant excess of events in the mass range between 115 and 140 GeV/c ². The local significance corresponds to 3.0 standard deviations at m _H = 120 GeV/c ²; the global significance (incorporating the look-elsewhere effect) for such an excess anywhere in the full mass range investigated is approximately 2.5 standard deviations. Furthermore, we separately combine searches for H → b{ie27-5}, H → W+W ^? and H → γγ. We find that the excess is concentrated in the H → b{ie27-6} channel, appearing in the searches over a broad range of m _H ; the maximum local significance of 3.3 standard deviations corresponds to a global significance of approximately 3.1 standard deviations. The observed signal strengths in all channels are consistent with the expectation for a standard model Higgs boson at m _H = 125 GeV/c ². The production of neutral Higgs bosons in association with b-quarks can be significantly enhanced in various beyond the standard model scenarios, including Supersymmetry. The recent combination of such searches from the two collaborations is discussed.     

Distinguishing a SM-like MSSM Higgs boson from SM Higgs boson at muon collider

We explore the possibility of distinguishing the SM-like MSSM Higgs boson from the SM Higgs boson via Higgs boson pair production at future muon collider. We study the behavior of the production cross-section in SM and MSSM with Higgs boson mass for various MSSM parameters tan β and m _A . We observe that at fixed CM energy, in the SM, the total cross-section increases with the increase in Higgs boson mass whereas this trend is reversed for the MSSM. The changes that occur for the MSSM in comparison to the SM predictions are quantified in terms of the relative percentage deviation in cross-section. The observed deviations in cross-section for different choices of Higgs boson masses suggest that the measurements of the cross-section could possibly distinguish the SM-like MSSM Higgs boson from the SM Higgs boson.      

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.     

Higher-order corrections to Higgs boson decays in the MSSM with complex parameters

We discuss Higgs boson decays in the CP-violating MSSM, and examine their phenomenological impact using cross section limits from the LEP Higgs searches. This includes a discussion of the full 1-loop results for the partial decay widths of neutral Higgs bosons into lighter neutral Higgs bosons (h _a →h _b h _c ) and of neutral Higgs bosons into fermions (\(h_{a} \to f \bar{f}\)). In calculating the genuine vertex corrections, we take into account the full spectrum of supersymmetric particles and all complex phases of the supersymmetric parameters. These genuine vertex corrections are supplemented with Higgs propagator corrections incorporating the full 1-loop and the dominant 2-loop contributions, and we illustrate a method of consistently treating diagrams involving mixing with Goldstone and Z bosons. In particular, the genuine vertex corrections to the process h _a →h _b h _c are found to be very large and, where this process is kinematically allowed, can have a significant effect on the regions of the CPX benchmark scenario which can be excluded by the results of the Higgs searches at LEP. However, there remains an unexcluded region of CPX parameter space at a lightest neutral Higgs boson mass of ～45 GeV. In the analysis, we pay particular attention to the conversion between parameters defined in different renormalisation schemes and are therefore able to make a comparison to the results found using renormalisation group improved/effective potential calculations.     

Higgs boson searches via dileptonic bottomonium decays

We explore the pseudoscalar ηb${\eta }_b$ and the scalar χ_b0${\chi }_{b0}$ decays into ?⁺?⁻${?}^{+}{?}^{-}$ to probe whether it is possible to probe the Higgs sectors beyond that of the Standard Model. We, in particular, focus on the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, and determine the effects of its Higgs bosons on the aforementioned bottomonium decays into lepton pairs. We find that the dileptonic branchings of the bottomonia can be sizeable for a relatively light Higgs sector.     

Testing Higgs boson scenarios in the phenomenological NMSSM

The European Physical Journal C - The NA60 experiment has studied low-mass muon pair production in proton–nucleus collisions with a system of Be, Cu, In, W, Pb and&nbsp;U targets, using a...     

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     

Towards Higgs boson production in gluon fusion to NNLO in the MSSM

We consider the Higgs boson production in the gluon-fusion channel to next-to-next-to-leading order within the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. In particular, we present analytical results for the matching coefficient of the effective theory and study its influence on the total production cross section in the limit where the masses of all MSSM particles coincide. For supersymmetric masses below 500 GeV it is possible to find parameters leading to a significant enhancement of the Standard Model cross section, the K-factors, however, change only marginally.     

Two Higgs Doublet Model and model independent interpretation of neutral Higgs boson searches

Searches for the neutral Higgs bosons and are used to obtain limits on the Type II Two Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM(II)) with no CP–violation in the Higgs sector and no additional particles besides the five Higgs bosons. The analysis combines approximately 170 pb of data collected with the OPAL detector at GeV with previous runs at and GeV. The searches are sensitive to the and decay modes of the Higgs bosons. For the first time, the 2HDM(II) parameter space is explored in a detailed scan, and new flavour independent analyses are applied to examine regions in which the neutral Higgs bosons decay predominantly into light quarks or gluons. Model–independent limits are also given. Received: 11 July 2000 / Published online: 21 December 2000     

Prospects for Higgs boson searches at the Large Hadron Collider

These proceedings summarize the sensitivity for the CMS and ATLAS experiments at the LHC to discover a Standard Model Higgs boson with relatively low integrated luminosity per experiment. The most relevant discovery modes are dealt with. A brief discussion on the expected performance from these experiments in searches for one or more of the Higgs bosons from the minimal version of the supersymmetric theories is also included.      

Complete LEP data: Status of Higgs boson searches

The LEP experiments completed data taking in November 2000. New preliminary combined results of the four LEP experiments ALEPH, DELPHI, L3, and OPAL are presented for various Higgs boson searches.     

Precise prediction for the mass of the lightest Higgs boson in the MSSM

The leading diagrammatic two-loop corrections are incorporated into the prediction for the mass of the lightest Higgs boson, m_h, in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The results, containing the complete diagrammatic one-loop corrections, the new two-loop result and refinement terms incorporating leading electroweak two-loop and higher-order QCD contributions, are discussed and compared with results obtained by renormalization group calculations. Good agreement is found in the case of vanishing mixing in the scalar quark sector, while sizable deviations occur if squark mixing is taken into account.     

Yukawa coupling quantum corrections to the self-couplings of the lightest MSSM Higgs boson

A detailed analysis of the top-quark/squark quantum corrections to the lightest CP-even Higgs boson self-couplings is presented in the MSSM. By considering the leading one-loop Yukawa-coupling contributions of , we discuss the decoupling behavior of these corrections when the top squarks are heavy compared to the electroweak scale. As shown analytically and numerically, the large corrections can almost completely be absorbed into the -boson mass. Our conclusion is that the self-couplings remain similar to the coupling of the SM Higgs boson for the heavy top-squark sector. Received: 15 November 2001 / Published online: 25 January 2002