Searching for Invisibly Decaying Higgs Bosons at LEP II

Abstract

We study the potential of LEP II to unravel the existence of invisibly decaying Higgs bosons, predicted in a wide class of models. We perform a model independent analysis, focusing our attention to the final state topologies exhibiting $b\bar{b}$ or ${\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}$ ($\ell =\mu$ or $e$) pairs and missing energy. We carefully evaluate the signals and backgrounds, choosing appropriate cuts to enhance the discovery limits. Our results demonstrate that LEP II is capable of discovering such a Higgs boson for a wide range of masses and couplings.

22 pages, latex, uses epsfig.sty, 5 figures