This work presents a comprehensive overview of the physics of vector boson scattering (VBS) in the dawn of Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Recalled here are some of its most basic physics principles, the historical relation between vector boson scattering and the Higgs boson, then discussed is the physics of VBS processes after Higgs discovery, and the prospects for future VBS measurements at the LHC and beyond. This monograph reviews the work of many people, including previously published theoretical work as well as experimental results, but also contains a portion of original simulation-based studies that have not been published before.
We study the discovery prospects of the charged Higgs boson in the context of multi Higgs models in certain BSM scenarios. We classify models into three categories based on the charged Higgs coupling properties: gaugophobic, fermiophobic, and chromophobic. In each case, we identify viable modes of discovery, and present LHC analysis for discovery. We find that extensions of the Standard Model in which the charged Higgs does not couple to colored particles offer the best possible avenues for discovery.
We survey techniques for finding a CP-odd Higgs boson, A, at the Linear Collider that do not depend upon the presence of other light Higgs bosons. The potential reach in $[m_A,\tanβ]$ parameter space for various production/discovery modes is evaluated and regions where discovery might not be possible at a given $\sqrt{s}$ are delineated. We give, for the first time, results for $\epem\to ν\antiνA$ one-loop $W$ boson fusion production.
We explore the discovery potential of the supersymmetric Higgs bosons through $bg$ channel at Tevatron and LHC. Compared with the process of $qq' \to WH$, this channel is more advantigeous to finding the supersymmetric Higgs bosons at Tevatron if $\tanβ$ is larger than ten.
1. We discuss the opportunities of complete Higgs boson discovery at different colliders. Main conclusion here is: Photon collider is the best for this goal. 2. We discuss how to use the Higgs boson (after its discovery) as the window to a New Physics. Main conclusion here is: Higgs boson production in gluon and photon fusion together with production in process $eγ\to eH$ provides very good window to a New Physics with the scale $Λ\gg M_H$.
The manner in which the parameters of a two-Higgs-doublet model can be chosen so that no Higgs boson is discovered at a $\sqrt{s}\leq 800\gev$ $\epem$ collider, while maintaining consistency with current precision electroweak measurements, is described. The importance of a Giga-$Z$ factory and higher collider energies for such a scenario is emphasized.
In view of recent perturbative and nonperturbative evidence that the peak of the Higgs resonance saturates as the coupling increases, we examine the potential of the future Large Hadron Collider to discover a heavy Higgs resonance by gluon fusion.
The discovery potential of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC for Higgs bosons of the MSSM is discussed. Several CP conserving and one CP violating benchmark scenario are investigated.
We discuss discovery potentials for a 140 GeV Standard Model Higgs boson produced in e+e- collisions at 360 GeV, including all potential irreducible and reducible background contributions. In the second part of the study, we estimate the uncertainties expected for the branching fractions of the Higgs into bb-bar, tau+tau-, WW* and into cc-bar+gg including a realistic error estimation of the inclusive bremsstrahlung Higgs production cross section.
The existence of dark matter provides compelling evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model. Minimal extensions of the Standard Model with additional scalars or fermions allow to explain the observed dark matter relic density in an economic way. We analyse several of these possibilities like the inert Higgs and radiative seesaw models in the light of the recent Higgs discovery and study prospects for the direct and indirect detection of dark matter in these models.
A personal feeling of where we stand theoretically in the puzzle of EWSB, faced with the impressive limits on new physics set at the summer conferences. Plenary talk at EPS HEP 2011.
We study the $Y=0$ triplet extended supersymmetric model in the light of the recent Higgs boson discovery. We calculate full one loop Higgs mass spectrum in this model where the possible doublet-triplet mixing is considered in the charged Higgs sector. This mixing changes the prediction of $\mathcal{B}r(B_s\to X_s γ)$ in this model, compared to the MSSM. The constraints from the $\sim 125$ GeV Higgs along with $\mathcal{B}r(B_s\to X_s γ)$ are incorporated to find out the allowed parameter space. The lower bounds on the third generation squark masses coming from 125 GeV Higgs are rather week in…
The implications of the discovery of the Higgs boson at the LHC with a mass of approximately 125 GeV are summarised in the context of the minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model, the MSSM. Discussed are the implications from the measured mass and production/decay rates of the observed particle and from the constraints in the search for the heavier Higgs states at the LHC.
Discovery of the Higgs boson in any decay channel depends on the existence of event variables or cuts with sensitivity to the presence of the Higgs. We demonstrate the non-optimality of the kinematic variables which are currently expected to play the largest role in the discovery (or exclusion) of the Higgs at the LHC in the tau channel. Any LHC collaboration looking for opportunities to gain advantages over its rivals should, perhaps, consider the alternative strategy we propose.
Discovering the Higgs boson is one of the primary goals of both the Tevatron and the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The present status of the Higgs search is reviewed and future prospects for discovery at the Tevatron and LHC are considered. This talk focuses primarily on the Higgs boson of the Standard Model and its minimal supersymmetric extension. Theoretical expectations for the Higgs boson and its phenomenological consequences are reviewed.
In this paper we examine the LHC discovery potential of the lightest CP-odd Higgs boson, a1, of the NMSSM produced in gluon fusion channel gg->a1. We evaluate the inclusive signal rates of the a1 for a variety of decay channels and discuss its possible discovery. It is observed that the overall production and decay rates at inclusive level are quite sizable and should help extracting the a1 signal over some regions of the NMSSM parameter space.
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 $300 {\rm fb}^{-1}$.
This paper has been withdrawn by the authors in order to comply with the ATLAS publication policy and is now only available via the CERN cdsweb (http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/984015)
We investigate the discovery prospects for NMSSM Higgs bosons during the 13~TeV run of the LHC. While one of the neutral Higgs bosons is demanded to have a mass around 125~GeV and Standard Model (SM)-like properties, there can be substantially lighter, nearby or heavier Higgs bosons, that have not been excluded yet by LEP, Tevatron or the 8~TeV run of the LHC. The challenge consists in discovering the whole NMSSM Higgs mass spectrum. We present the rates for production and subsequent decay of the neutral NMSSM Higgs bosons in the most promising final states and discuss their possible discovery…
In this work, we examine a two-Higgs-doublet extension of the Standard Model in which one Higgs doublet is responsible for giving mass to both up- and down-type quarks, while a separate doublet is responsible for giving mass to leptons. We examine both the theoretical and experimental constraints on the model and show that large regions of parameter space are allowed by these constraints in which the effective couplings between the lightest neutral Higgs scalar and the Standard-Model leptons are substantially enhanced. We investigate the collider phenomenology of such a "leptophilic" two-Higgs…
I consider models with non-universal gaugino masses at the gauge coupling unification scale, taking into account the Higgs boson discovery. Viable regions of parameter space are mapped and studied in the case of non-universality following from an F-term in a linear combination of singlet and adjoint representations of SU(5). I consider, in particular, "semi-natural" models that have small μ, with gaugino masses dominating the supersymmetry breaking terms at high energies. Higgsino-like particles are then much lighter than all other superpartners, and the prospects for discovery at the Large Ha…
We identify scenarios not ruled out by LEP data in which NMSSM Higgs detection at the LHC will be particularly challenging. We first review the `no-lose' theorem for Higgs discovery at the LHC that applies if Higgs bosons do not decay to other Higgs bosons - namely, with L=300 fb^-1, there is always one or more `standard' Higgs detection channel with at least a 5 sigma signal. However, we provide examples of no-Higgs-to-Higgs cases for which all the standard signals are no larger than 7 sigma implying that if the available L is smaller or the simulations performed by ATLAS and CMS turn out to …
We consider a CP-conserving two-Higgs-doublet type II model with a light scalar or pseudoscalar neutral Higgs boson ($\h=\hl$ or $\h=\ha$) that has no $ZZ/WW$ coupling and, thus, cannot be detected in $\epem\to Z\h$ (Higgs-strahlung) or $ν\antiν\h$ (via $WW$ fusion). Despite sum rules which ensure that the light $\h$ must have significant $t\anti t$ or $b\anti b$ coupling, for a wedge of moderate $\tanb$, that becomes increasingly large as $\mh$ increases, the $\h$ can also escape discovery in both $b\anti b \h$ and $t\anti t \h$ production at a $\rts=500-800\gev$ $\epem$ collider (for expecte…
We review the 5 sigma discovery contours for the charged MSSM Higgs boson at the CMS experiment with 30/fb for the two cases M_H+ < m_t and M_H+ > m_t. In order to analyze the search reach we combine the latest results for the CMS experimental sensitivities based on full simulation studies with state-of-the-art theoretical predictions of MSSM Higgs-boson production and decay properties. Special emphasis is put on the SUSY parameter dependence of the 5 sigma contours. The variation of $μ$ can shift the prospective discovery reach in tan_beta by up to Delta tan_beta = 40.
We use global fits to analyze the most recent Higgs data from ATLAS, CMS and Tevatron and compare the Standard Model (SM) prediction with natural extensions of the SM. In particular we study wide classes of composite Higgs models based on different coset structures (leading at low energy to different Higgs sectors including extra singlets and Higgs doublets) and different coupling structures of the elementary fermions to the strong sector. We point out in what situations the composite models could improve (or worsen) the fit to the data and compare with similar trends in the MSSM.
The first run of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN brought the discovery of the Higgs boson, an apparently elementary scalar particle with a mass of 125 GeV, the avatar of the mechanism that hides the electroweak symmetry. A new round of experimentation is beginning, with the energy of the proton--proton colliding beams raised to 6.5 TeV per beam, from 4 TeV at the end of the first run. This article summarizes what we have learned about the Higgs boson, and calls attention to some issues that will be among our central concerns in the near future.
The search for MSSM Higgs bosons will be an important goal at the LHC. In order to analyze the search reach of the CMS experiment for the charged MSSM Higgs bosons, we combine the latest results for the CMS experimental sensitivities based on full simulation studies with state-of-the-art theoretical predictions of MSSM Higgs-boson production and decay properties. The experimental analyses are done assuming an integrated luminosity of 30 fb^-1 for the two cases M_H+- < m_t and M_H+- > m_t. The results are interpreted as 5 sigma discovery contours in M_H+- - tan_beta planes of the MSSM for vario…
Electroweak scale active right-handed neutrinos such as those proposed in a recent model necessitate the enlargement of the SM Higgs sector to include Higgs triplets with doubly charged scalars. The search for and constraints on such Higgs sector has implications not only on the nature of the electroweak symmetry breaking but also on the possibility of testing the seesaw mechanism at colliders such as the LHC and the ILC.
Top-partners -- vector-like quarks which mix predominantly with the top quark -- are simple extensions of the standard model present in many theories of new physics such as little Higgs models, topcolor models, and extra dimensions. Through renormalizable mixing with the top quark, these top-partners inherit couplings to the Higgs boson. Higgs bosons produced from the decay of top-partners are often highly boosted and ideal candidates for analyses based on jet substructure. Using substructure methods, we show that light Higgs bosons decaying to b b-bar can be discovered at the 14 TeV LHC with …
We show how the LHC potential to detect a rather light CP-even Higgs boson of the NMSSM, H1 or H2, decaying into CP-odd Higgs states, A1A1, can be improved if Higgs-strahlung off W bosons and (more marginally) off top-antitop pairs are employed alongside vector boson fusion as production modes. Our results should help extracting at least one Higgs boson signal over the NMSSM parameter space.
We consider the measurement of the trilinear couplings of the neutral Higgs bosons in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model~(MSSM) at a high energy $e^+ e^-$ linear collider in the light of the discovery of a Higgs boson at the CERN Large Hadron Collider~(LHC). We identify the state observed at the LHC with the lightest Higgs boson~($h^0$) of the MSSM, and impose the constraints following from this identification, as well as other experimental constraints on the MSSM parameter space. In order to measure trilinear neutral Higgs couplings, we consider different processes where the heavier Hi…
The prospects for Higgs boson discovery and study at present and future colliders are reviewed, with emphasis on the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) states. The expected experimental coverages with different production and decay modes are outlined. Particular attention is given to the Higgs couplings predicted when the top quark Yukawa coupling has an infrared fixed point. Characteristic Higgs boson mass spectra from the minimal supergravity (mSUGRA) model are considered and the decoupling/non-decoupling regimes of the lightest Higgs boson are discussed. General tests are describe…
We outline several improvements to the experimental analyses carried out at Tevatron (Run 2) or simulated in view of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) that could increase the scope of CDF/D0 and ATLAS/CMS in detecting charged Higgs bosons
Extending the Higgs sector by an additional $SU(2)_L$ doublet Higgs boson implies the existence of a charged Higgs boson $H^+$. The LHC experiments search for such particle focusing on it decays into leptonic and quark decay final states, namely $τν$,$cs$ and $tb$. However, if the Higgs sector if further extended, e.g. by a gauge singlet as in the NMSSM, the charged Higgs boson can also decay into a light scalar or pseudoscalar Higgs boson which itself decays further into a two photon final state. We present here scenarios where $H^+$ is produced in top-quark decays with a sizable cross-sectio…
The production cross section for a m_H=115 GeV, SM Higgs boson in weak boson fusion at the LHC is sizable. However, the branching fraction for H-->WW is expected to be relatively small. The signal, with its two forward jets, is sufficiently different from the main backgrounds that a signal to background ratio of better than 1:1 can nevertheless be obtained, with large enough rate to allow for a 5 sigma signal with 35 fb^{-1} of data. The H-->WW signal in weak boson fusion may thus prove to be the discovery mode for the Higgs boson at the LHC.
The long awaited discovery of a new light scalar at the LHC opens up a new era of studies of the Higgs sector in the SM and its extensions. In this paper we discuss the consequences of the observation of a light Higgs boson with the mass and rates reported by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations on the parameter space of the phenomenological MSSM, including also the so far unsuccessful LHC searches for the heavier Higgs bosons and supersymmetric particle partners in missing transverse momentum as well as the constraints from B physics and dark matter. We explore the various regimes of the MSSM Hig…
More evidences have now been collected at the Large Hadron Collider suggesting the new 125 - 126 GeV boson is likely the long sought Higgs boson in the standard model. One pressing question continued being asked by theorists is whether this Higgs boson is a lone player responsible for the full electroweak symmetry breaking. Current data still allow room for additional Higgs bosons or some other UV physics that may play a partial role in electroweak symmetry breaking as well. We use the WW scattering to investigate such a possibility, using the two-Higgs-doublet model as a prototype. The WW sca…
Finite Unified Theories (FUTs) are N = 1 supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) which can be made finite to all-loop orders, based on the principle of reduction of couplings, and therefore are provided with a large predictive power. Confronting the predictions of SU(5) FUTs with the top and bottom quark masses and other low-energy experimental constraints a light Higgs-boson mass in the range M_h ~ 121-126 GeV was predicted, in striking agreement with the recent discovery of a Higgs-like state around ~ 125.7 GeV at ATLAS and CMS. Furthermore the favoured model, a finiteness constrained v…
We explore the discovery potential of Higgs pair production at a 100 TeV collider via full leptonic mode. The same mode can be explored at the LHC when Higgs pair production is enhanced by new physics. We examine two types of fully leptonic final states and propose a partial reconstruction method. The reconstruction method can reconstruct some kinematic observables. It is found that the $m_{T2}$ variable determined by this reconstruction method and the reconstructed visible Higgs mass are important and crucial to discriminate the signal and background events. It is also noticed that a new vari…
The Higgs couplings can receive non-decoupling corrections due to heavy quanta, and deviations from the SM can be used to test its presence. The possible Higgs signal recently reported at LEP, with mh=115 GeV, severely constrains the presence of heavy quanta, such as a heavy fourth family. At Tevatron, the Higgs production by gluon fusion, followed by the decay h -> WW*, can also be used to probe the existence of heavy colored particles, including additional families, chiral sextet and octet quarks. Within the MSSM, we also find that gluon fusion is a sensitive probe for the squark spectrum.
We investigate the prospects of observing a neutral Higgs boson decaying into a pair of $W$ bosons (one real and the other virtual), followed by the $W$ decays into $qq' \ellν$ or $jj\ellν$ at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Assuming that the missing transverse energy comes solely from the neutrino in $W$ decay, we can reconstruct the $W$ masses and then the Higgs mass. At the LHC with a center of mass energy ($\sqrt{s}$) of 8 TeV and an integrated luminosity ($L$) of 25 fb$^{-1}$, we can potentially establish a $6σ$ signal. A $5σ$ discovery of $H \to WW^* \to jj\ellν$ for $\sqrt{s} = 14…
The discovery potential of charged Higgs from pp->tH+- in the H+- -> tau nu decay channel is investigated in CMS and ATLAS. For m_H>m_t, the most relevant channels are H+- -> tb and H+- -> tau nu. Whereas the former has the largest branching ratio it suffers of large irreducible backgrounds, while the latter offers a very clean enviroment when appropriate cuts are used. Making use of the tau polarization effects, in the purely hadronic final states an almost background-free signal is selected. The expected discovery range is evaluated for CMS and ATLAS with 30 fb^-1 each in the low luminosity …
The sensitivity of the ATLAS detector to the discovery of a heavy charged Higgs boson is presented. Assuming a heavy SUSY spectrum, the most promising channels above the top quark mass are $H^\pm\to tb$ and $H^\pm\toτ^\pmν_τ$ which provide coverage in the low and high $\tanβ$ regions up to $\sim 600$ GeV. The achievable precisions on the charged Higgs mass and $\tanβ$ determination are also discussed. The $H^\pm\to W^\pm h^0$ channel, though restricted to a small MSSM parameter space, shows a viable signal in NMSSM where the parameter space is less constrained. The observation of the channel $…
The prospects for discovery of the five Higgs bosons of the minimal supersymmetric standard model are assessed for existing and planned future colliders, including LEP\,I, LEP\,II, LHC and SSC. As a benchmark for comparisons, we take a top-quark mass $m_t= 150\,$GeV and squark mass parameter $\tilde m= 1\,$TeV in evaluating one-loop radiative corrections; some results for other $m_t$ values are also given. Searches based on the most promising production and decay channels are taken into account. For large regions in parameter space, detectable signals are predicted for one or more of the Higgs…
Finite Unified Theories (FUTs) are N = 1 supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories (GUTs) which can be made finite to all-loop orders, based on the principle of reduction of couplings, and therefore are provided with a large predictive power. Confronting the predictions of SU(5) FUTs with the top and bottom quark masses and other low-energy experimental constraints a light Higgs-boson mass in the range M_h \sim 121-126 GeV was predicted, in striking agreement with the recent discovery of a Higgs-like state around \sim 125.5 GeV at ATLAS and CMS. Furthermore the favoured model, a finiteness constra…
We discuss the SM Higgs discovery potential of LHC in the reaction $pp\to H+ jet\toγγ+jet$ when the jet is observed at sufficiently high $E_t$ to be reliably identified. We conclude that this channel gives promising discovery possibilities for the Higgs boson mass range 100-140 GeV, during LHC operation at a low luminosity. With 30 fb$^{-1}$ of accumulated data and for $M_H=120$ GeV about 100 signal events could be observed with the number of background events larger by a factor of 2 only, showing a signal significance $S/\sqrt{B}\sim 7$. We use the difference of distributions in the partonic …
The constraints on the two Higgs doublet model from the new experimental bounds of $b\to sγ$ by CLEO and the latest published value of the top quark mass by CDF and D0 are reanalyzed with the effective Lagrangian covering the full QCD corrections from the energy scale of top quark to that of bottom. The reanalysis result shows that the constraints become more stringent than that of the earlier analysis, i.e. a bigger region of the parameter space of the model is ruled out.
Until recently precision electroweak computations were fundamentally uncertain due to lack of knowledge about the existence of the Standard Model Higgs boson and its mass. For this reason substantial calculational machinery had to be carried along for each calculation that changed the Higgs boson mass and other parameters of the Standard Model. Now that the Higgs boson is discovered and its mass is known to within a percent, we are able to compute reliable semi-analytic expansions of electroweak observables. We present results of those computations in the form of expansion formulae. In additio…
Production of the lightest MSSM Higgs boson h is studied at the LHC. Isorate contours for the h -> gamma gamma and h -> tau+tau- decay channels are shown in the m_A,tan(beta) parameter space. Effects of the SUSY parameters, in particular the stop mixing and stop quark mass, are investigated. Search strategies at the LHC are discussed and the discovery potential is calculated for the CMS experiment. The MSSM parameter space for m_A > 150-200 GeV is expected to be covered with at least one decay channel with an integrated luminosity of 60 fb^{-1}. A light stop quark with large stop mixing can af…
Particle physics model building within the context of string theory suggests that further copies of the Higgs boson sector may be expected. Concerns regarding tree-level flavor changing neutral currents are easiest to allay if little or no couplings of next generation Higgs bosons are allowed to Standard Model fermions. We detail the resulting general Higgs potential and mass spectroscopy in both a Standard Model extension and a supersymmetric extension. We present the important experimental constraints from meson-meson mixing, loop-induced $b\to sγ$ decays and LEP2 direct production limits. W…
We explore the potential of the Large Hadron Collider to observe the h1 -> a1 a1 -> 4 muons signal from the lightest scalar Higgs boson (h1) decaying into the two lightest pseudoscalar Higgs bosons (a1), followed by their decays into four muons in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). The signature under study applies to the region of the NMSSM parameter space in which m_a1 < 2 m_tau, which has not been studied previously. In such a scenario, the suggested strategy of searching for a four-muon signal with the appropriate background suppression would provide a powerful meth…
We investigate the collider phenomenology of the scalar triplet particles in the Type-II seesaw model at a 100 TeV $pp$ collider. Depending on triplet vacuum expectation value $v_Δ$, the dominant discovery channels could be $H^{++} H^{--}$ and $H^{\pm\pm}H^\mp$. We find the $H^{\pm\pm}H^\mp\to W^\pm W^\pm h W^\mp/\ell^\pm \ell^\pm h W^\mp$ channels are promising for both model discovery at relatively large $v_Δ$ and determination of the Higgs portal couplings $λ_4$ and $λ_5$. We also find that these two channels are complementary to indirect determination of $λ_4$ from future precise measureme…
The quest for the Higgs boson of the Standard Model, which was a cornerstone in the physics programme at particle colliders operating at the energy frontier for several decades, is the subject of this review. After reviewing the formulation of electroweak symmetry breaking via the Higgs mechanism within the Standard Model, the phenomenology of the Higgs boson at colliders and the theoretical and phenomenological constraints on the Standard Model Higgs sector are discussed. General remarks on experimental searches and the methodology of statistical interpretation are followed by a description o…
We study the potential of hadron colliders in the search for the pair production of neutral Higgs bosons in the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. We perform a detailed signal and background analysis, working out efficient kinematical cuts for the extraction of the signal. The important role of squark loop contributions to the signal is re--emphasized. If the signal is sufficiently enhanced by these contributions, it could even be observable at the next run of the upgraded Tevatron collider in the near future. At the LHC the pair production of light and heavy Higgs bosons …
We study the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) with minimal flavor violation (MFV), imposing constraints from flavor physics observables and MSSM Higgs searches, in light of the recent discovery of a 125 GeV Higgs boson by ATLAS and CMS. We analyze the electroweak vacuum stability conditions to further restrict the MSSM parameter space. In addition, a connection to ultraviolet physics is shown via an implementation of renormalization group running, which determines the TeV-scale spectrum from a small set of minimal supergravity parameters. Finally, we investigate the impact from dar…
The signal strength of the recently discovered Higgs boson-like particle in the diphoton channel seemingly constrains physics beyond the standard model to a severe degree. However, the reported signal strength is prone to possible underestimation of uncertainties. We propose a discriminant that is relatively free of many of the theoretical uncertainties, and use this to gauge the impact on the phenomenological MSSM. A Bayesian global fit to all the pre-LHC data results in posterior distributions for the masses that are neither very restrictive, nor sufficiently prior-independent (except for th…
We scan the parameter space of the NMSSM for the observability of at least one Higgs boson at the LHC with $300\fbi$ integrated luminosity, taking the present LEP2 constraints into account. We restrict the scan to those regions of parameter space for which Higgs boson decays to other Higgs bosons and/or supersymmetric particles are kinematically forbidden. We find that if $WW$-fusion detection modes for a light Higgs boson are not taken into account, then there are still significant regions in the scanned portion of the NMSSM parameter space where no Higgs boson can be observed at the $5σ$ lev…
Considerations from electroweak naturalness and stringy naturalness imply a little hierarchy in supersymmetric models where the superpotential higgsino mass parameter mu is of order the weak scale whilst the soft SUSY breaking terms may be in the (multi-) TeV range. In such a case, discovery of SUSY at LHC may be most likely in the higgsino pair production channel. Indeed, ATLAS and CMS are performing searches in the higgsino mass discovery plane of m(chi_2^0) vs. Δm^0 = m(chi_2^0)-m(chi_1^0). We examine several theoretical aspects of this discovery plane in both the gravity-mediation NUHM2 mo…
The search for the weakly-coupled Higgs sector at future colliders consists of three phases: discovery of a Higgs candidate, verification of the Higgs interpretation of the signal, and precision measurements of Higgs sector properties. The discovery of one Higgs boson with Standard Model properties is not sufficient to expose the underlying structure of the electroweak symmetry breaking dynamics. It is critical to search for evidence for a non-minimal Higgs sector and/or new physics associated with electroweak symmetry breaking dynamics.
Recent results on MSSM Higgs physics at the LHC are reviewed. The dependence of the LHC discovery reach in the b\bar b H/A, H/A \to τ^+τ^- channel on the underlying SUSY scenario is analysed. This is done by combining the latest results for the prospective CMS experimental sensitivities for an integrated luminosity of 30 or 60 fb^-1 with state-of-the-art theoretical predictions of MSSM Higgs-boson properties. The results are interpreted in terms of the parameters governing the MSSM Higgs sector at lowest order, M_A and tan_beta. While the higgsino mass parameter μhas a significant impact on th…
