WMAP-Compliant Benchmark Surfaces for MSSM Higgs Bosons

TL;DR

This paper introduces WMAP-compatible benchmark surfaces in the MSSM parameter space, facilitating experimental and phenomenological studies of Higgs bosons consistent with dark matter observations.

Contribution

It defines specific benchmark surfaces in the NUHM framework that align with WMAP dark matter constraints, aiding future collider and dark matter detection analyses.

Findings

Benchmark surfaces are specified in M_A-tan_beta planes with fixed or varying parameters.

These surfaces are compatible with WMAP dark matter relic density constraints.

The paper discusses experimental prospects at colliders, B physics, and dark matter detection.

Abstract

We explore `benchmark surfaces' suitable for studying the phenomenology of Higgs bosons in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM), which are chosen so that the supersymmetric relic density is generally compatible with the range of cold dark matter density preferred by WMAP and other observations. These benchmark surfaces are specified assuming that gaugino masses m_{1/2}, soft trilinear supersymmetry-breaking parameters A_0 and the soft supersymmetry-breaking contributions m_0 to the squark and slepton masses are universal, but not those associated with the Higgs multiplets (the NUHM framework). The benchmark surfaces may be presented as M_A-tan_beta planes with fixed or systematically varying values of the other NUHM parameters, such as m_0, m_{1/2}, A_0 and the Higgs mixing parameter mu. We discuss the prospects for probing experimentally these benchmark surfaces at the Tevatron collider, the LHC, the ILC, in B physics and in direct dark-matter detection experiments. An Appendix documents developments in the FeynHiggs code that enable the user to explore for her/himself the WMAP-compliant benchmark surfaces.