Higgs Physics as a Window Beyond the MSSM (BMSSM)

TL;DR

The work argues that current Higgs mass bounds point to additional TeV-scale dynamics beyond the MSSM, captured via a BMSSM framework implemented as an effective Lagrangian with only two leading operators suppressed by $1/M$. By expanding in the small parameter $\epsilon \sim |\mu|/M$, the authors derive simple expressions for how the Higgs, chargino, and neutralino spectra and couplings are altered, and they identify regions where BMSSM effects are most pronounced. They discuss plausible microscopic realizations, including NMSSM, triplet extensions, and extended gauge sectors, showing how operator coefficients map onto model parameters. The analysis highlights that BMSSM can raise the lightest Higgs mass, modify mass relations, and provide a direct probe of TeV-scale dynamics through precision Higgs phenomenology, with implications for the little hierarchy problem and future collider tests.

Abstract

We interpret the current experimental limit on the lightest Higgs boson mass to suggest that if nature is supersymmetric, there are additional interactions beyond those of the MSSM coming from new degrees of freedom around the TeV scale. Within an effective field theory analysis, the leading order corrections to the MSSM are described in terms of only two operators. This provides a highly constrained description of Beyond MSSM (BMSSM) physics. The scalar Higgs spectrum as well as the chargino and neutralino spectrum and couplings are modified in a distinctive way. These operators can be generated by a variety of microscopic mechanisms.