The Scope of the 4 tau Channel in Higgs-strahlung and Vector Boson Fusion for the NMSSM No-Lose Theorem at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates the detectability of a specific Higgs decay channel involving four tau leptons in the NMSSM at the LHC, using two production mechanisms to cover the model's parameter space.

Contribution

It analyzes the potential of the 4 tau channel via Higgs-strahlung and VBF processes to test the NMSSM no-lose theorem at the LHC.

Findings

The 4 tau channel can effectively probe the NMSSM parameter space.

Higgs-strahlung and VBF provide complementary detection strategies.

The study demonstrates feasible detection with current LHC capabilities.

Abstract

We study the potential of the h_1 -> a_1 a_1 -> 4 tau signal from the lightest scalar (h_1) and pseudoscalar (a_1) Higgs bosons to cover the parameter space of the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We exploit a 2 mu + 2 jets signature from four taus decays (accompanied by missing transverse energy), resorting to both Higgs-strahlung (HS), by triggering on leptonic W^\pm decays, and Vector Boson Fusion (VBF), by triggering on two same sign non-isolated muons.