Light Stops, Light Staus and the 125 GeV Higgs

TL;DR

This paper explores how light staus and stops in supersymmetry models can influence Higgs production and decay rates, especially around 125 GeV, and discusses related phenomenological implications and search strategies.

Contribution

It analyzes the effects of light staus and stops on Higgs properties and proposes new search avenues for these particles in the context of the 125 GeV Higgs.

Findings

Light staus can enhance Higgs to diphoton decay rate by up to 50%.

Light stops can significantly modify Higgs gluon fusion production rate.

Departures from SM Higgs couplings to bottom quarks and tau leptons are possible due to scalar superpartner effects.

Abstract

The ATLAS and CMS experiments have recently announced the discovery of a Higgs-like resonance with mass close to 125 GeV. Overall, the data is consistent with a Standard Model (SM)-like Higgs boson. Such a particle may arise in the minimal supersymmetric extension of the SM with average stop masses of the order of the TeV scale and a sizable stop mixing parameter. In this article we discuss properties of the SM-like Higgs production and decay rates induced by the possible presence of light staus and light stops. Light staus can affect the decay rate of the Higgs into di-photons and, in the case of sizable left-right mixing, induce an enhancement in this production channel up to $\sim$ 50% of the Standard Model rate. Light stops may induce sizable modifications of the Higgs gluon fusion production rate and correlated modifications to the Higgs diphoton decay. Departures from SM values of the bottom-quark and tau-lepton couplings to the Higgs can be obtained due to Higgs mixing effects triggered by light third generation scalar superpartners. We describe the phenomenological implications of light staus on searches for light stops and non-standard Higgs bosons. Finally, we discuss the current status of the search for light staus produced in association with sneutrinos, in final states containing a $W$ gauge boson and a pair of $\tau$s.