Using Jet Substructure at the LHC to Search for the Light Higgs Bosons of the CP-Violating MSSM

TL;DR

This paper proposes using jet substructure techniques at the LHC to identify light Higgs bosons in the CP-violating MSSM, which are difficult to detect with traditional methods due to QCD backgrounds.

Contribution

It introduces a novel jet substructure approach to detect light Higgs bosons in a challenging parameter space of the MSSM, expanding search capabilities.

Findings

Jet substructure can effectively identify boosted light Higgs decays.

Significant potential to discover light Higgs bosons at the LHC.

Method improves sensitivity beyond conventional searches.

Abstract

The CP-violating version of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is an example of a model where experimental data do not preclude the presence of light Higgs bosons in the range around 10 -- 110 GeV. Such light Higgs bosons, decaying almost wholly to b-bbar pairs, may be copiously produced at the LHC, but would remain inaccessible to conventional Higgs searches because of intractable QCD backgrounds. We demonstrate that a significant number of these light Higgs bosons would be boosted strongly enough for the pair of daughter $b$-jet pairs to appear as a single `fat' jet with substructure. Tagging such jets could extend the discovery potential at the LHC into the hitherto-inaccessible region for light Higgs bosons.