Impact of LHC Higgs couplings measurements on bosonic decays of the neutral Higgs sector in the scNMSSM

TL;DR

This study examines how recent LHC Higgs coupling measurements constrain the bosonic decay channels of the neutral Higgs sector in the scNMSSM, focusing on the most natural parameter space with large bb and small ba0.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of the Higgs sector in the scNMSSM under current constraints, highlighting the impact of LHC data on the model's parameter space and potential for discovery.

Findings

LHC constraints exclude certain non-singlet Higgs states below ~400 GeV.

The model remains viable and consistent with current Higgs data.

Natural parameter regions with large bb and small ba0 are still promising for discovery.

Abstract

We analyze the Next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model with Grand unification boundary conditions under current theoretical and experimental constraints. We compute the mass spectrum of the model and focus on the three lightest particles in the Higgs sector (two CP-even scalars, $h_1, h_2$, and one CP-odd, $a_1$). The reduced couplings of such particles, singlet-doublet components, their branching ratios to bosons, and reduced cross-section to photons and massive gauge bosons via gluon fusion are thoroughly and systematically scrutinized. Our analysis is focused on the parameter space where the singlet-doublet coupling $\lambda$ is as large as possible (keeping the perturbativity bound intact) and the ratio between the vacuum expectation values of the up-type and down-type Higgses ($\tan{\beta}$) is as small as possible, which is the region representing the most natural case of the NMSSM. We show the impact of recent constraints from the LHC on the SM-Higgs couplings to bosons and fermions on the parameter space of the model and the consequent implications on the Higgs sector. The results show that while the model is still able to account for current data and provide an opportunity for discovery of extended Higgs sectors, recent LHC Higgs couplings constraints rule-out parts of the parameter space where $h_2$ (non-SM-like) and $a_1$ are non-singlet with masses below ~400 GeV.