LHC Signals of a Heavy CP-even Higgs Boson in the NMSSM via Decays into a $Z$ and a Light CP-odd Higgs State

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential to detect a heavy CP-even Higgs boson in the NMSSM through its decay into a Z boson and a light CP-odd Higgs, proposing a promising detection channel at the LHC with high luminosity.

Contribution

It introduces a novel search strategy for heavy Higgs bosons in the NMSSM via the $Za_1$ decay mode, emphasizing a background-free signal with specific final states.

Findings

Potential for background-free detection at the LHC with high luminosity.

Effective use of $Z\to jj$ and $a_1\to \tau^+\tau^-$ decay channels.

Significant signal extraction despite small event rates.

Abstract

We study the $Za_1$ decay mode of a heavy CP-even Higgs boson of the NMSSM, $h_2$, where $a_1$ is the lightest CP-odd Higgs state of this scenario, the former produced in association with a bottom-antibottom pair, and find that, despite small event rates, a significant (in fact essentially background free) signal should be extractable at the LHC with very high luminosity, so long that a $Z\to jj$ (where $j$ represents a jet) and $a_1\to \tau^+\tau^-$ final state is exploited, in presence of $b$-tagging