Threshold corrections to the MSSM finite-temperature Higgs potential

TL;DR

This paper calculates one-loop finite-temperature corrections in the MSSM, reconstructs the effective Higgs potential, and explores conditions for a first-order electroweak phase transition within the full parameter space, considering experimental constraints.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of threshold finite-temperature corrections and their impact on the electroweak phase transition in the MSSM, including the effects of squark-Higgs interactions and parameter sensitivity.

Findings

Finite-temperature corrections are substantial at large A_t,b and μ.

Extensive MSSM parameter regions support a first-order phase transition.

Results align with scenarios involving a light stop quark.

Abstract

In the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) the one-loop finite-temperature corrections from the squark-Higgs bosons sector are calculated, the effective two-Higgs-doublet potential is reconstructed and possibilities of the electroweak phase transition in full MSSM ($m_{H^\pm}$, ${\tt tg}\beta$, $A_{t,b}$, $\mu$, $m_Q$, $m_U$, $m_D$) parameter space are studied. At large values of $A_{t,b}$ and $\mu$ of around 1 TeV, favored indirectly by LEP2 and Tevatron data, the threshold finite-temperature corrections from triangle and box diagrams with intermediate third generation squarks are very substantial. The four types of bifurcation sets are defined for the two-Higgs-doublet potential. High sensitivity of the low-temperature evolution to the effective two-doublet and the MSSM squark sector parameters is observed, but rather extensive regions of the full MSSM parameter space allow the first-order electroweak phase transition respecting the phenomenological constraints at zero temperature. As a rule, these regions of the MSSM parameter space are in line with the case of a light stop quark.