Collider signatures of a light NMSSM pseudoscalar in neutralino decays in the light of LHC results

Abstract

We investigate signatures induced by a very light pseudoscalar Higgs in neutralino decays in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM) and determine their observability at the LHC. We concentrate on scenarios which feature two light scalar Higgs bosons (one of them is SM-like with a mass of 125 GeV and a singlet-like lighter one) with a very light (singlet-like) pseudoscalar Higgs in the mass range 2m_tau < m_a1 < 2m_b. We consider neutralino-chargino pair production and the subsequent decay X_{2,3}-> X_1 a1, which leads to topologies involving multi-leptons and missing transverse energy. We determine a set of selection cuts that can effectively isolate the signal from backgrounds of the Standard Model or the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. We also exemplify the procedure with a set of benchmark points, for which we compute the expected number of events and signal strength for LHC with 8 TeV center of mass energy. We show that this signal can already be probed for some points in the NMSSM parameter space.

29 pages, 10 figures. one new table and one new figure added, modification in text. References added. Matches with the published version in JHEP

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• Probing the $\mu \nu$SSM with light scalars, pseudoscalars and neutralinos from the decay of a SM-like Higgs boson at the LHC
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• Two Light Stops in the NMSSM and the LHC
• A relatively light, highly bino-like dark matter in the $Z_3$-symmetric NMSSM and recent LHC searches
• Next-to-Leading Order NMSSM Decays with CP-odd Higgs Bosons and Stops
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• Revisiting singlino dark matter of the natural $Z_3$-symmetric NMSSM in the light of LHC
• Dominant production of heavier Higgs bosons through vector boson fusion in NMSSM
• Discovery potential of the NMSSM CP-odd Higgs at the LHC
• Status of the 98 - 125 GeV Higgs scenario with updated LHC-8 data
• LHC signals of the next-to-lightest scalar Higgs state of the NMSSM in the $4\tau$ decay channel
• Fermionic decays of NMSSM Higgs bosons under LHC 13 TeV constraints
• Status of ${\mathbb{Z}}_3$-NMSSM featuring a light bino-dominated LSP and a light singlet-like scalar under the LZ Experiment