No Arabic abstract
In the CMSSM the heaviest scalar and pseudo-scalar Higgs bosons decay largely into b-quarks and tau-leptons because of the large $tanbeta$ values favored by the relic density. In the NMSSM the number of possible decay modes is much richer. In addition to the CMSSM-like scenarios, the decay of the heavy Higgs bosons is preferentially into top quark pairs (if kinematically allowed), lighter Higgs bosons or neutralinos, leading to invisible decays. We provide a scan over the NMSSM parameter space to project the 6D parameter space of the Higgs sector on the 3D space of the Higgs masses to determine the range of branching ratios as function of the Higgs boson mass for all Higgs bosons. Specific LHC benchmark points are proposed, which represent the salient NMSSM features.
We consider the fully constrained version of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric extension of the standard model (cNMSSM) in which a singlet Higgs superfield is added to the two doublets that are present in the minimal extension (MSSM). Assuming universal boundary conditions at a high scale for the soft supersymmetry-breaking gaugino, sfermion and Higgs mass parameters as well as for the trilinear interactions, we find that the model is more constrained than the celebrated minimal supergravity model. The phenomenologically viable region in the parameter space of the cNMSSM corresponds to a small value for the universal scalar mass m_0: in this case, one single input parameter is sufficient to describe the phenomenology of the model once the available constraints from collider data and cosmology are imposed. We present the particle spectrum of this very predictive model and discuss how it can be distinguished from the MSSM.
We examine the extent to which it is possible to realize the NMSSM ideal Higgs models espoused in several papers by Gunion et al in the context of partially universal GUT scale boundary conditions. To this end we use the powerful methodology of nested sampling. We pay particular attention to whether ideal-Higgs-like points not only pass LEP constraints but are also acceptable in terms of the numerous constraints now available, including those from the Tevatron and $B$-factory data, $(g-2)_mu$ and the relic density $Omega h^2$. In general for this particular methodology and range of parameters chosen, very few points corresponding to said previous studies were found, and those that were found were at best $2sigma$ away from the preferred relic density value. Instead, there exist a class of points, which combine a mostly singlet-like Higgs with a mostly singlino-like neutralino coannihilating with the lightest stau, that are able to effectively pass all implemented constraints in the region $80<m_h<100$. It seems that the spin-independent direct detection cross section acts as a key discriminator between ideal Higgs points and the hard to detect singlino-like points.
We discuss the role that Higgs coupling measurements can play in differentiating supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model. Fitting current LHC data to the Higgs couplings, we find that the likelihood fit shows a preference in the direction of suppressed (enhanced) bottom (top) quark couplings. In the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model, we demonstrate that for tan beta > 1, there is tension in achieving such fermion couplings due to the structure of the Higgs quartic couplings. In anticipation of interpreting supersymmetric models with future data, we determine a single straightforward condition required to access the region of coupling space preferred by current data.
Discovery of a Higgs boson and precise measurements of its properties open a new window to test physics beyond the standard model. Models with Universal Extra Dimensions are not exception. Kaluza-Klein excitations of the standard model particles contribute to the production and decay of the Higgs boson. In particular, the parameters associated with third generation quarks are constrained by Higgs data, which are relatively insensitive to other searches often involving light quarks and leptons. We investigate implications of the 126 GeV Higgs in Next-to-Minimal Universal Extra Dimensions, and show that boundary terms and bulk masses allow a lower compactification scale as compared to in Minimal Universal Extra Dimensions.
We describe a major extension of the SOFTSUSY spectrum calculator to include the calculation of the decays, branching ratios and lifetimes of sparticles into lighter sparticles, covering the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) as well as the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM). This document acts as a manual for the new version of SOFTSUSY, which includes the calculation of sparticle decays. We present a comprehensive collection of explicit expressions used by the program for the various partial widths of the different decay modes in the appendix.