Light CP-odd Higgs and Small $\tan \beta$ Scenario in the MSSM and Beyond

TL;DR

This paper explores a scenario in supersymmetric models with a light CP-odd Higgs and low tan beta, highlighting potential overlooked signals at past and current colliders and proposing new search strategies.

Contribution

It identifies a parameter space with a light CP-odd Higgs that could have evaded detection and suggests novel decay modes and search strategies for collider experiments.

Findings

Light CP-odd Higgs with mass less than 10 GeV is viable in MSSM.

Standard searches may have missed these Higgses due to unconventional decay modes.

Modified strategies are needed for detecting Higgses with tau- and c-rich decay products at the LHC.

Abstract

We study the Higgs sector of supersymmetric models containing two Higgs doublets with a light MSSM-like CP odd Higgs, $m_A \lesssim 10$ GeV, and $\tan \beta \lesssim 2.5$. In this scenario all of the Higgses resulting from two Higgs doublets: light and heavy CP even Higgses, $h$ and $H$, the CP odd Higgs, $A$, and the charged Higgs, $H^\pm$, could have been produced at LEP or the Tevatron, but would have escaped detection because they decay in modes that have not been searched for or the experiments are not sensitive to. Especially $H \to ZA$ and $H^\pm \to W^{\pm \star} A$ with $A \to c \bar c, \tau^+ \tau^-$ present an opportunity to discover some of the Higgses at LEP, the Tevatron and also at B factories. Typical $\tau$- and $c$-rich decay products of all Higgses require modified strategies for their discovery at the LHC.