An effective scanning method of the NMSSM parameter space

Abstract

The next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) naturally provides a 125 GeV Higgs boson without the need for large loop corrections from multi-TeV stop quarks. Furthermore, the NMSSM provides an electroweak scale dark matter candidate consistent with all experimental data, like relic density and non-observation of direct dark matter signals with the present experimental sensitivity. However, more free parameters are introduced in the NMSSM, which are strongly correlated. A simple parameter scan without knowing the correlation matrix is not efficient and can miss significant regions of the parameter space. We introduce a new technique to sample the NMSSM parameter space, which takes into account the correlations. For this we project the 7D NMSSM parameter space onto the 3D Higgs boson mass parameter space. The reduced dimensionality allows for a non-random sampling and therefore a complete coverage of the allowed NMSSM parameters. In addition, the parameter correlations and possible deviations of the signal strengths of the observed 125 Higgs boson from the SM values are easily predicted.