Mosleh M. Almarashi | Searcharxiv

arXiv2011

LHC Signals of a Heavy CP-even Higgs Boson in the NMSSM via Decays into a $Z$ and a Light CP-odd Higgs State

We study the $Za_1$ decay mode of a heavy CP-even Higgs boson of the NMSSM, $h_2$, where $a_1$ is the lightest CP-odd Higgs state of this scenario, the former produced in association with a bottom-antibottom pair, and find that, despite small event rates, a significant (in fact essentially background free) signal should be extractable at the LHC with very high luminosity, so long that a $Z\to jj$ (where $j$ represents a jet) and $a_1\to τ^+τ^-$ final state is exploited, in presence of $b$-tagging

hep-ph↗

arXiv2011

Reinforcing the no-lose theorem for NMSSM Higgs discovery at the LHC

We show the potential of the LHC to detect a CP-even Higgs boson of the NMSSM, $h_1$ or $h_2$, decaying into two rather light CP-odd Higgs bosons, $a_1$, by exploiting the production mode based on Higgs-strahlung off $b$-quarks, i.e., the channel $pp\to b\bar b h_{1,2}$. We also consider the case of $h_2\to h_1 h_1$ decays. It is found that these decays have dominant BRs over large regions of the NMSSM parameter space where tan$β$ is large, a condition which also favours the $pp\to b\bar b h_{1,2}$ production rates. Further decays of the light Higgs boson pairs ($a_1$ and $h_1$) into photon, muon, tau and $b$ final states are also considered. The overall production and decay rates for these processes at inclusive level are sizable and should help extracting at least one Higgs boson signal over the NMSSM parameter space.

hep-ph↗