A Search for Supersymmetric Higgs Bosons in the Di-Tau Decay Mode in Proton Anti-Proton Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.8 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports the first search for Higgs bosons decaying into tau pairs at a hadron collider, setting limits on their production cross section in supersymmetric models using Fermilab data.

Contribution

It introduces the first experimental search for supersymmetric Higgs bosons in the di-tau decay mode at a hadron collider, providing new constraints on their production.

Findings

Set an upper limit of 77.9 pb on the cross section times branching ratio for m_A=100 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=50.

First to perform a search for Higgs to tau pairs at a hadron collider.

Provided constraints on supersymmetric Higgs boson production in a specific parameter space.

Abstract

A search for direct production of Higgs bosons in the di-tau decay mode is performed with 86.3 +/- 3.5 pb^-1 of data collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab during the 1994-1995 data taking period of the Tevatron. We search for events where one tau decays to an electron plus neutrinos and the other tau decays hadronically. We perform a counting experiment and set limits on the cross section for supersymmetric Higgs boson production where tan(beta) is large and m_A is small. For a benchmark parameter space point where m_A=100 GeV/c^2 and tan(beta)=50, we limit the production cross section multiplied by the branching ratio to be less than 77.9 pb at the 95% confidence level compared to the theoretically predicted value of 11.0 pb. This is the first search for Higgs bosons decaying to tau pairs at a hadron collider.