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A Supersymmetric Explanation of the Excess of Higgs-Like Events at LEP

Manuel Drees

Abstract

Searches for the Standard Model Higgs boson by the four LEP experiments found excess events in two mass ranges: a 2.3 sigma excess around 98 GeV, and an 1.7 sigma excess around 115 GeV. The latter has been discussed widely in the literature, but the former has attracted little attention so far. In this paper I explore the possibility of explaining the excess near 98 GeV through production of the lighter CP--even Higgs boson in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). It is shown that this allows to simultaneously explain the excess near 115 GeV through the production of the heavier CP--even MSSM Higgs boson. The resulting light Higgs sector offers opportunities for charged Higgs boson searches at the Tevatron and LHC. Neutral Higgs boson searches at the LHC in the di--muon channel are also promising. However, conclusive tests of this scenario may have to wait for the construction of a linear e+ e- collider.

A Supersymmetric Explanation of the Excess of Higgs-Like Events at LEP

Abstract

Searches for the Standard Model Higgs boson by the four LEP experiments found excess events in two mass ranges: a 2.3 sigma excess around 98 GeV, and an 1.7 sigma excess around 115 GeV. The latter has been discussed widely in the literature, but the former has attracted little attention so far. In this paper I explore the possibility of explaining the excess near 98 GeV through production of the lighter CP--even Higgs boson in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). It is shown that this allows to simultaneously explain the excess near 115 GeV through the production of the heavier CP--even MSSM Higgs boson. The resulting light Higgs sector offers opportunities for charged Higgs boson searches at the Tevatron and LHC. Neutral Higgs boson searches at the LHC in the di--muon channel are also promising. However, conclusive tests of this scenario may have to wait for the construction of a linear e+ e- collider.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 4 sections, 4 equations, 3 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. 1. Introduction
  2. 2. Searches for the SM Higgs at LEP
  3. 3. Testing the scenario
  4. 4. Summary and Conclusions

Figures (3)

  • Figure 1: Minimal and maximal values of the heavier MSSM Higgs boson masses consistent with the constraints (\ref{['sambsq']}), (\ref{['mh']}) and (\ref{['cons']}), as required to reproduce the excess of Higgs--like events near 98 GeV. In the lower frame in addition the constraint (\ref{['mH']}) has been imposed, as required to also reproduce the excess near 115 GeV.
  • Figure 2: The couplings of the light CP--even MSSM Higgs boson $h$ to heavy quarks as a function of $\tan\beta$ in units of the corresponding SM coupling, once the constraint (\ref{['sambsq']}) has been imposed. The upper and lower curves within a pair should be interpreted as defining the $1 \sigma$ bands for these couplings, since they have been obtained by saturating the limits in (\ref{['sambsq']}).
  • Figure 3: Allowed region in the $(m_A, m_{H^\pm})$ plane (a), in the $(m_{H^\pm},\mu)$ plane (b), in the $(m_A, m_{\tilde{t}_1})$ plane (c) and in the $(m_A, m_{\tilde{t}_2})$ plane (d), after the constraints (\ref{['sambsq']})--(\ref{['cons']}) have been imposed.