MSSM Higgs-boson production in bottom-quark fusion: electroweak radiative corrections

TL;DR

The paper addresses precise predictions for MSSM Higgs production in association with bottom quarks via bb fusion at hadron colliders, focusing on large tanβ. It delivers complete NLO corrections including electroweak O(α) and QCD O(α_s) effects, augmented by two-loop MSSM Higgs self-energies from FeynHiggs. A key finding is that most tanβ-enhanced corrections can be absorbed into an improved Born approximation through appropriate renormalization and running mb, with remaining non-universal one-loop corrections at the percent level. The analysis also discusses scheme- and mb-input dependencies and demonstrates the results in SPS 1b and SPS 4, underscoring the approach’s relevance for precision LHC predictions.

Abstract

Higgs-boson production in association with bottom quarks is an important discovery channel for supersymmetric Higgs particles at hadron colliders for large values of tan(beta). We present the complete O(alpha) electroweak and O(alpha_s) strong corrections to associated bottom-Higgs production through bb fusion in the MSSM and improve this next-to-leading-order prediction by known two-loop contributions to the Higgs self-energies, as provided by the program FeynHiggs. Choosing proper renormalization and input-parameter schemes, the bulk of the corrections (in particular the leading terms for tan(beta)) can be absorbed into an improved Born approximation. The remaining non-universal corrections are typically of the order of a few per cent. Numerical results are discussed for the benchmark scenarios SPS 1b and SPS 4.

Figures (4)

• Figure 2: Full MSSM corrections $\delta_{\rm MSSM} = \delta_{{\rm MSSM-QCD}} + \delta_{{\rm MSSM-weak}}$ defined relative to $\sigma_{{\rm IBA}}$ as a function of the $M{\rm A^0}$ A^0$$M_${\rm A^0}$$$ pole mass in the $\overline{{\rm DR}}$ scheme for $t_\beta$. All other MSSM parameters are fixed to their SPS 4 values.
• Figure 3: Full MSSM corrections $\delta_{\rm MSSM} = \delta_{{\rm MSSM-QCD}} + \delta_{{\rm MSSM-weak}}$ as in Fig. \ref{['Fig:MA_plot']}. However, here $\alpha_{\rm eff}$ (\ref{['eq:alpha_eff']}) in $\sigma_{{\rm IBA}}$ is calculated from self-energies at $p^2=0$.
• Figure 4: Full MSSM corrections $\delta_{\rm MSSM} = \delta_{{\rm MSSM-QCD}} + \delta_{{\rm MSSM-weak}}$ defined relative to $\sigma_{{\rm IBA}}$ as a function of the $m{\rm b}$ b$$m_${\rm b}$$$ input in the $\overline{{\rm DR}}$ scheme (upper panel) and DCPR scheme (lower panel) for $t_\beta$. The corrections for ${\rm H^0}$ H^0$$ and ${\rm A^0}$ A^0$$ lie on top of each other.
• Figure 5: Full MSSM corrections $\delta_{\rm MSSM} = \delta_{{\rm MSSM-QCD}} + \delta_{{\rm MSSM-weak}}$ defined relative to $\sigma_{{\rm IBA}}$ as a function of the $M{\rm A^0}$ A^0$$M_${\rm A^0}$$$ pole mass in the $\overline{{\rm DR}}$ scheme for $t_\beta$. All other MSSM parameters are fixed to their SPS 1b values.