Many Light Higgs Bosons in the NMSSM

TL;DR

This paper explores the NMSSM with light Higgs bosons, highlighting unique decay channels and experimental signatures that could be detected at LEP, Tevatron, and B factories, expanding the search for new physics beyond the Standard Model.

Contribution

It identifies novel light Higgs decay modes and production channels in the NMSSM that have been overlooked or are poorly constrained by existing experiments.

Findings

Light CP-odd Higgs boson can evade current experimental limits.

New decay channels like $ ext{H}_i o a_i a_i$ and $ ext{H}^ ext{±} o W^{ ext{(star)}} a_i$ are viable.

Potential signals at LEP, Tevatron, and B factories for these light Higgs states.

Abstract

The next-to-minimal supersymmetric model with a light doublet-like CP-odd Higgs boson and small $\tan \beta$ can satisfy all experimental limits on Higgs bosons even with light superpartners. In these scenarios, the two lightest CP-even Higgs bosons, $\hi$ and $\hii$, and the charged Higgs boson, $\hp$, can all be light enough to be produced at LEP and yet have decays that have not been looked for or are poorly constrained by existing collider experiments. The channel $\hi\to \ai\ai$ (where $\ai$ is the lightest CP-odd boson and has mass below $2m_b$) with $\ai\to \tau^+\tau^-$ or $2j$ is still awaiting LEP constraints for $\mhi>86\gev$ or $82\gev$, respectively. LEP data may also contain $\epem\to \hii\ai$ events where $\hii\to Z\ai$ is the dominant decay, a channel that was never examined. Decays of the charged Higgs bosons are often dominated by $H^\pm \to W^{\pm (\star)} \ai$ with $\ai \to gg,c \bar c, \tau^+ \tau^-$. This is a channel that has so far been ignored in the search for $t\to \hp b$ decays at the Tevatron. A specialized analysis might reveal a signal. The light $\ai$ might be within the reach of $B$ factories via $\Upsilon\to \gamma \ai$ decays. We study typical mass ranges and branching ratios of Higgs bosons in this scenario and compare these scenarios where the $\ai$ has a large doublet component to the more general scenarios with arbitrary singlet component for the $\ai$.