Higgs production in association with squark pairs in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model at future hadron colliders

Abstract

We study neutral and charged Higgs boson production in association with stop and sbottom squarks at the Large Hadron Collider, within the Supergravity inspired Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. The phenomenological relevance of such reactions is twofold. Firstly, they constitute a novel production mechanism of Higgs particles, either through a decay of a heavier (anti)squark into a lighter one or via a Higgs bremsstrahlung process. Secondly, their production rates are extremely sensitive to the values assumed by the five input parameters of the model, this possibly allowing one to put stringent constraints on the latter. After an exhaustive scan of the parameter space, we find that the majority of such processes could be detectable at high luminosity, provided tan(beta) is large, tan(beta) > 30 (except in the case of \tilde{t}_1\tilde{t}_1^* h and \tilde{t}_1\tilde{t}_2^* h final states, whose detection is also possible for smaller values), that the universal soft Supersymmetric breaking masses are in the ranges M_0 < 500 GeV and M_{1/2} < 220 GeV, and that the trilinear couplings are negative, A_0 < 0. We also point out some sizable decay signatures and discuss their Standard Model (SM) backgrounds. Finally, we derive compact analytical formulae of the corresponding scattering matrix elements.