Many light Higgs bosons in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric model

The next-to-minimal supersymmetric model with a light doubletlike CP-odd Higgs boson and small tanbeta can satisfy all experimental limits on Higgs bosons even with light superpartners. In these scenarios, the two lightest CP-even Higgs bosons, h₁ and h₂, and the charged Higgs boson, h⁺, can all be light enough to be produced at CERN LEP and yet have decays that have not been looked for or are poorly constrained by existing collider experiments. The channel h₁-->a₁a₁ with a₁-->tau⁺tau^- or 2j is still awaiting LEP constraints for m_h1>86 or 82 GeV, respectively. LEP data may also contain e⁺e^--->h₂a₁ events where h₂-->Za₁ is the dominant decay, a channel that was never examined. Decays of the charged Higgs bosons are often dominated by H^±-->W^{±([small star, filled])}a₁ with a₁-->gg, c[overline c], and tau⁺tau^-. This is a channel that has so far been ignored in the search for t-->h⁺b decays at the Tevatron. A specialized analysis might reveal a signal. The light a₁ might be within the reach of B factories via Upsilon-->gammaa₁ decays. We study typical mass ranges and branching ratios of Higgs bosons in this scenario and compare these scenarios where the a₁ has a large doublet component to the more general scenarios with arbitrary singlet component for the a₁.

©2009 The American Physical Society