Consistency of LEP event excesses with an h-->aa decay scenario and low-fine-tuning next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard models

We examine the LEP limits for the Zh-->Z+b's final state and find that the excess of observed events for m_h~100 GeV correlates well with there being an m_h~100 GeV Higgs boson with SM-like ZZh coupling that decays partly via h-->b[overline b]+tau⁺tau^- [with B(h-->b[overline b])~0.08] but dominantly via h-->aa [with B(h-->aa)~0.9], where m_a<2m_b so that a-->tau⁺tau^- (or light quarks and gluons) decays are dominant. This type of scenario is precisely that predicted in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Model for parameter choices yielding the lowest possible fine-tuning.

©2006 The American Physical Society