Higgs Signal for h to aa at Hadron Colliders

Abstract

We assess the prospect of observing a neutral Higgs boson at hadron colliders in its decay to two spin-zero states, a, for a Higgs mass of 90-130 GeV, when produced in association with a W or Z boson. Such a decay is allowed in extensions of the MSSM with CP-violating interactions and in the NMSSM, and can dominate Higgs boson final states, thereby evading the LEP constraints on standard Higgs boson production. The light spin-zero state decays primarily via a to bb and tau+tau-, so this signal channel retains features distinct from the main backgrounds. Our study shows that at the Tevatron, there may be potential to observe a few events in the bb tau+tau- or bbbb channels with relatively small background, although this observation would be statistically limited. At the LHC, the background problem is more severe, but with cross sections and integrated luminosities orders of magnitude larger than at the Tevatron, the observation of a Higgs boson in this decay mode would be possible. The channel h to aa to bbbb would provide a large statistical significance, with a signal-to-background ratio on the order of 1:2. In these searches, the main challenge would be to retain the adequate tagging efficiency of b's and tau's in the low p_T region.

arXiv commentVersion to be published in JHEP. 20 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (30)

• Search for the Standard Model Higgs Boson at LEP
• MadEvent: Automatic Event Generation with MadGraph
• Search for Neutral MSSM Higgs Bosons at LEP
• Electroweak Radiative Corrections to Associated WH and ZH Production at Hadron Colliders
• Escaping the Large Fine Tuning and Little Hierarchy Problems in the Next to Minimal Supersymmetric Model and h-> aa Decays
• Electroweak Breaking and the mu problem in Supergravity Models with an Additional U(1)
• Measurement of the ttbar Production Cross Section in ppbar Collisions at sqrt{s}=1.96 TeV using Lepton + Jets Events with Secondary Vertex b-tagging
• Measurements of Inclusive W and Z Cross Sections in p-pbar Collisions at sqrt{s} =1.96 TeV
• Light Axion within the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model
• MSSM Higgs Boson Phenomenology at the Tevatron Collider
• Higgs Boson Decays to CP-odd Scalars at the Tevatron and Beyond
• Decay-mode independent searches for new scalar bosons with the OPAL detector at LEP
• Consistency of LEP $Z+b$-jets excess with an {\boldmath $h\to aa$} Decay Scenario and Low-Fine-Tuning NMSSM Models
• Higgs Scalars in the Minimal Non-minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model
• Difficult Scenarios for NMSSM Higgs Discovery at the LHC
• New Minimal Extension of MSSM
• Naturalness and Higgs Decays in the MSSM with a Singlet
• The Z-Z' Mass Hierarchy in a Supersymmetric Model with a Secluded U(1)'-Breaking Sector
• Collider Probes of the MSSM Higgs Sector with Explicit CP Violation
• Searches for Neutral Higgs Bosons in Extended Models
• Probing NMSSM Scenarios with Minimal Fine-Tuning by Searching for Decays of the Upsilon to a Light CP-Odd Higgs Boson
• Final results of the searches for neutral Higgs bosons in e+e- collisions at sqrt(s) up to 209GeV
• Role of h --> eta eta in Intermediate-Mass Higgs Boson Searches at the Large Hadron Collider
• Search for neutral MSSM Higgs bosons decaying to tau pairs in p-pbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV
• The Higgs Sector in a $U(1{)}^{\prime }$ Extension of the MSSM
• Search for New Physics Using High Mass Tau Pairs from 1.96-TeV Proton-Antiproton Collisions
• Another step towards a no-lose theorem for NMSSM Higgs discovery at the LHC
• First Measurement of the Production of a W Boson in Association with a Single Charm Quark in Proton Anti-proton Collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV
• Search for associated Higgs boson production WH->WWW*->l+-nu l'+-nu'+X in p-pbar collisions at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV
• Singlet Extensions of the MSSM

Cited by in corpus (65)

• The Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model
• Electroweak baryogenesis
• Exotic Decays of the 125 GeV Higgs Boson
• Complex Singlet Extension of the Standard Model
• Measuring the Higgs Sector
• On the radiative corrections to the neutral Higgs boson masses in the NMSSM
• The Hunt for New Physics at the Large Hadron Collider
• Physics searches at the LHC
• A light Higgs scalar in the NMSSM confronted with the latest LHC Higgs data
• Benchmark scenarios for the NMSSM
• Dark Matter from Minimal Flavor Violation
• Higher order corrections to Higgs boson decays in the MSSM with complex parameters
• Complex Scalar Dark Matter vis-à-vis CoGeNT, DAMA/LIBRA and XENON100
• Can neutralinos in the MSSM and NMSSM scenarios still be light?
• Light Neutralino Dark Matter: Direct/Indirect Detection and Collider Searches
• Analysis of the NMSSM Higgs Boson Masses at One-Loop Level
• Lepton-Specific Two-Higgs Doublet Model: Experimental Constraints and Implication on Higgs Phenomenology
• Low-Mass Higgs Bosons in the NMSSM and Their LHC Implications
• Higgs Bosons in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model at the LHC
• Changes in Dark Matter Properties After Freeze-Out
• Anomaly of Zbb coupling revisited in MSSM and NMSSM
• Radiative Upsilon decays and a light pseudoscalar Higgs in the NMSSM
• Search for the Elusive Higgs Boson Using Jet Structure at LHC
• Probing the two light Higgs scenario in the NMSSM with a low-mass pseudoscalar
• Higgs Boson Sector of the Next-to-MSSM with CP Violation
• Light Higgs Boson, Light Dark Matter and Gamma Rays
• Unconventional phenomenology of a minimal two-Higgs-doublet model
• Modified Higgs Boson Phenomenology from Gauge or Gaugino Mediation in the NMSSM
• Next Generation Higgs Bosons: Theory, Constraints and Discovery Prospects at the Large Hadron Collider
• Hiding a Heavy Higgs Boson at the 7 TeV LHC
• Probing the $\mu \nu$SSM with light scalars, pseudoscalars and neutralinos from the decay of a SM-like Higgs boson at the LHC
• Light NMSSM Higgs bosons in SUSY cascade decays at the LHC
• Extending LHC Coverage to Light Pseudoscalar Mediators and Coy Dark Sectors
• Unburied Higgs
• NLSP Gluino Search at the Tevatron and early LHC
• Precision measurements, dark matter direct detection and LHC Higgs searches in a constrained NMSSM
• Ditau jets in Higgs searches
• Experimental constraints on nMSSM and implications on its phenomenology
• Higgs Mediated EDMs in the Next-to-MSSM: An Application to Electroweak Baryogenesis
• BMSSM Higgs Bosons at the Tevatron and the LHC
• Visible Supersymmetry Breaking and an Invisible Higgs
• Uncovering light scalars with exotic Higgs decays to bbmumu
• Light Higgsino Decays as a Probe of the NMSSM
• Updated constraints from radiative ${\rm Y}$ decays on a light CP-odd Higgs
• Phenomenology of Light Fermionic Asymmetric Dark Matter
• Revisit to Non-decoupling MSSM
• Supersymmetric Higgs Singlet Effects on B-Meson FCNC Observables at Large tan(beta)
• Detection prospects of light NMSSM Higgs pseudoscalar via cascades of heavier scalars from vector boson fusion and Higgs-strahlung
• The Higgs Working Group: Summary Report
• Light Pseudoscalar Higgs boson in Neutralino Decays in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model
• A low-scale flavon model with a $Z_N$ symmetry
• SUSY Digs up a Buried Higgs
• Prospects for Higgs Searches at the Tevatron and LHC in the MSSM with Explicit CP-violation
• Exotic Higgs Decay $h\to \varphi \varphi \to 4b$ at the LHeC
• Associated Production of Non-Standard Higgs Bosons at the LHC
• Impact of a four-zero Yukawa texture on $h\to \gamma \gamma$ and $\gamma Z$ in the framework of the Two Higgs Doublet Model Type III
• Scope of strongly self-interacting thermal WIMPs in a minimal $U(1{)}_D$ extension and its future prospects
• CP-violating Supersymmetric Higgs at the Tevatron and LHC
• Searching for Higgs decays to four bottom quarks at LHCb
• Indirect Detection Imprint of a CP Violating Dark Sector
• Uncovering the Charming Higgs at the LHC
• CP-violating MSSM Higgs at Tevatron and LHC
• Technicolor corrections to b\bar{b} -> W^{\pm}π^{\mp}_t at the CERN Large Hadron Collider
• Searches for the technicolor signatures via gg --> W^{\pm}π_t^{\mp} at the Large Hadron Collider
• Illuminating all-hadronic final states with a photon: Exotic decays of the Higgs boson to four bottom quarks in vector boson fusion plus gamma at hadron colliders