Unveiling the MSSM Neutral Higgs Bosons with Leptons and a Bottom Quark

Abstract

We investigate the prospects for the discovery of neutral Higgs bosons produced with a bottom quark where the Higgs decays into a pair of tau leptons and the taus decay into an electron-muon pair, i.e. $bg \to b\phi^0 \to b\tau^+\tau^- \to be^\pm\mu^\mp + E\!\!\!/_T$, $\phi^0 = h^0, H^0, A^0$. Our study has been done within the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. We consider the dominant physics backgrounds including the production of Drell-Yan processes ($b\tau^+\tau^-$ and $j\tau^+\tau^-, j = q, g$), top quark pair ($t\bar{t}$), $tW$ and $jWW$ with realistic acceptance cuts and efficiencies. We present $5\sigma$ discovery contours for the neutral Higgs bosons in the ($M_A,\tan\beta$) plane as well as the region with a favored light Higgs mass (123 GeV $\le m_h\le$ 129 GeV). Promising results are found for the CP-odd pseudoscalar ($A^0$) and the heavier CP-even scalar ($H^0$) Higgs bosons with masses up to 800 GeV and $\tan\beta \simeq 50$ at the LHC with a center of mass energy ($\sqrt{s}$) of 14 TeV and an integrated luminosity ($L$) of 300 fb$^{-1}$. With $\sqrt{s} =$ 14 TeV and $L =$ 3000 fb$^{-1}$, LHC will be able to discover the Higgs pseudoscalar and the heavier Higgs scalar beyond $M_A = 1000$ GeV.