Impact of CP-violating interference effects on MSSM Higgs searches
Abstract
Interference and mixing effects between neutral Higgs bosons in the MSSM with complex parameters are shown to have a significant impact on the interpretation of LHC searches for additional Higgs bosons. Complex MSSM parameters introduce mixing between the CP-even and CP-odd Higgs states h, H, A into the mass eigenstates h_1, h_2, h_3 and generate CP-violating interference terms. Both effects are enhanced in the case of almost degenerate states. Employing as an example an extension of a frequently used benchmark scenario by a non-zero phase φ _{A_t}, the interference contributions are obtained for the production of neutral Higgs bosons in gluon-fusion and in association with b-quarks followed by the decay into a pair of τ -leptons. While the resonant mixing increases the individual cross sections for the two heavy Higgs bosons h_2 and h_3, strongly destructive interference effects between the contributions involving h_2 and h_3 leave a considerable parameter region unexcluded that would appear to be ruled out if the interference effects were neglected.
- Publication:
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European Physical Journal C
- Pub Date:
- February 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1140/epjc/s10052-018-5543-4
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1705.05757
- Bibcode:
- 2018EPJC...78...87F
- Keywords:
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- High Energy Physics - Phenomenology;
- High Energy Physics - Experiment
- E-Print:
- 30 pages, 7 figures