NMSSM Higgs Benchmarks Near 125 GeV

TL;DR

This paper explores NMSSM scenarios with a Higgs near 125 GeV, proposing benchmark points and analyzing how to distinguish NMSSM Higgs signals from the Standard Model at the LHC.

Contribution

It introduces specific NMSSM benchmark points consistent with a 125 GeV Higgs and discusses their phenomenological implications for future collider searches.

Findings

Benchmark points for NMSSM Higgs near 125 GeV identified

Conditions for perturbativity up to GUT scale analyzed

Strategies for distinguishing NMSSM Higgs from SM Higgs proposed

Abstract

The recent LHC indications of a SM-like Higgs boson near 125 GeV are consistent not only with the Standard Model (SM) but also with Supersymmetry (SUSY). However naturalness arguments disfavour the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). We consider the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) with a SM-like Higgs boson near 125 GeV involving relatively light stops and gluinos below 1 TeV in order to satisfy naturalness requirements. We are careful to ensure that the chosen values of couplings do not become non perturbative below the grand unification (GUT) scale, although we also examine how these limits may be extended by the addition of extra matter to the NMSSM at the two-loop level. We then propose four sets of benchmark points corresponding to the SM-like Higgs boson being the lightest or the second lightest Higgs state in the NMSSM or the NMSSM-with-extra-matter. With the aid of these benchmark points we discuss how the NMSSM Higgs boson near 125 GeV may be distinguished from the SM Higgs boson in future LHC searches.