NMSSM Higgs Discovery at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper shows that the LHC can discover NMSSM Higgs bosons, especially a SM-like scalar decaying into light CP-odd states, with high confidence at 300 fb^{-1} luminosity.

Contribution

It demonstrates the potential for Higgs discovery in the NMSSM, including challenging scenarios with light CP-odd states, using combined search channels.

Findings

Higgs discovery is feasible in NMSSM at the LHC.

Detection of at least one NMSSM Higgs is guaranteed with 300 fb^{-1}.

A SM-like Higgs decaying to light CP-odd states can be observed.

Abstract

We demonstrate that Higgs discovery at the LHC is possible in the context of the NMSSM even for those scenarios such that the only strongly produced Higgs boson is a very SM-like CP-even scalar which decays almost entirely to a pair of relatvely light CP-odd states. In combination with other search channels, we are on the verge of demonstrating that detection of at least one of the NMSSM Higgs bosons is guaranteed at the LHC for accumulated luminosity of $300 {\rm fb}^{-1}$.