Search for Neutral Higgs Bosons Decaying to Tau Pairs in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

TL;DR

This paper reports a search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying into tau pairs in proton-antiproton collisions at 1.96 TeV, setting limits on production rates and interpreting results within the MSSM framework.

Contribution

First search for neutral Higgs bosons decaying to tau pairs at the Tevatron, providing new limits and combining results with other decay channels in the MSSM context.

Findings

No excess observed over standard model background

Limits set on Higgs production cross section times branching ratio

Results interpreted within the minimal supersymmetric standard model

Abstract

A search for the production of neutral Higgs bosons Phi decaying into tau^+tau^- final states in p-pbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV is presented. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of up to 348 pb^-1, were collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. Since no excess compared to the expectation from standard model processes is found, limits on the production cross section times branching ratio are set. The results are combined with those obtained from the D0 search for Phi b(b) to b-bbar-b(bbar) and are interpreted in the minimal supersymmetric standard model.