Detecting and Studying e+e−→H0A0,H+H−e^+e^-\to H^0A^0,H^+H^- in the MSSM: Implications of Supersymmetric Decays and Discriminating GUT Scenarios

We demonstrate that supersymmetric decays, as typified by the predictions of several GUT-scale boundary condition choices, do not prevent detection of $Z^* \to H^0A^0,H^+H^-$, at a $1-4$ TeV $e^+e^-$ or $\mu^+\mu^-$ collider operating at anticipated luminosity. For much of parameter space the relative branching ratios for various SUSY and non-SUSY decays can be measured with sufficient accuracy that different GUT-scale boundary condition choices can be distinguished from one another at a very high confidence level.Comment: 54 pages, full postscript file also available via anonymous ftp at ftp://ucdhep.ucdavis.edu/gunion/pair.p

Effect of Multiple Higgs Fields on the Phase Structure of the SU(2)-Higgs Model

The SU(2)-Higgs model, with a single Higgs field in the fundamental representation and a quartic self-interaction, has a Higgs region and a confinement region which are analytically connected in the parameter space of the theory; these regions thus represent a single phase. The effect of multiple Higgs fields on this phase structure is examined via Monte Carlo lattice simulations. For the case of N>=2 identical Higgs fields, there is no remaining analytic connection between the Higgs and confinement regions, at least when Lagrangian terms that directly couple different Higgs flavours are omitted. An explanation of this result in terms of enhancement from overlapping phase transitions is explored for N=2 by introducing an asymmetry in the hopping parameters of the Higgs fields. It is found that an enhancement of the phase transitions can still occur for a moderate (10%) asymmetry in the resulting hopping parameters.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures. References updated and minor typos correcte

Light Higgs bosons from a strongly interacting Higgs sector

The mass and the decay width of a Higgs boson in the minimal standard model are evaluated by a variational method in the limit of strong self-coupling interaction. The non-perturbative technique provides an interpolation scheme between strong-coupling regime and weak-coupling limit where the standard perturbative results are recovered. In the strong-coupling limit the physical mass and the decay width of the Higgs boson are found to be very small as a consequence of mass renormalization. Thus it is argued that the eventual detection of a light Higgs boson would not rule out the existence of a strongly interacting Higgs sector.Comment: 2 figure

Production of doubly charged scalars from the decay of singly charged scalars in the Higgs Triplet Model

The existence of doubly charged Higgs bosons (H^{\pm\pm}) is a distinctive feature of the Higgs Triplet Model (HTM), in which neutrinos obtain tree-level masses from the vacuum expectation value of a neutral scalar in a triplet representation of SU(2)_L. We point out that a large branching ratio for the decay of a singly charged Higgs boson to a doubly charged Higgs boson via H^\pm\to H^{\pm\pm}W^* is possible in a sizeable parameter space of the HTM. From the production mechanism q'qbar\to W^* \to H^{\pm\pm}H^\mp the above decay mode would give rise to pair production of H^{\pm\pm}, with a cross section which can be comparable to that of the standard pair-production mechanism qqbar\to \gamma^*,Z^* \to H^{++}H^{--}. We suggest that the presence of a sizeable branching ratio for H^\pm\to H^{\pm\pm}W^* could significantly enhance the detection prospects of H^{\pm\pm} in the four-lepton channel. Moreover, the decays H^0\to H^\pm W^* and A^0\to H^\pm W^* from production of the neutral triplet scalars H^0 and A^0 would also provide an additional source of H^\pm, which can subsequently decay to H^{\pm\pm}.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, two figures added in v2, to appear in Physical Review

Production of pseudoscalar Higgs-bosons in e γe\,\gamma collisions

We investigate the production of a pseudoscalar Higgs-boson $A^0$ using the reaction $e\,\gamma\rightarrow e\,A^0$ at an $e\bar{e}$ collider with center of mass energy of 500 GeV. Supersymmetric contributions are included and provide a substantial enhancement to the cross section for most values of the symmetry breaking parameters. We find that, despite the penalty incurred in converting one of the beams into a source of backscattered photons, the $e\, \gamma$ process is a promising channel for the detection of the $A^0$.Comment: 9 pages RevTex + 2 Postscript figures tar.gzip.uuencode

Has HyperCP Observed a Light Higgs Boson?

The HyperCP collaboration has observed three events for the decay Sigma^+ -> p mu^+ mu^- which may be interpreted as a new particle of mass 214.3 MeV. However, existing data from kaon and B-meson decays severely constrain this interpretation, and it is nontrivial to construct a model consistent with all the data. In this letter we show that the ``HyperCP particle'' can be identified with the light pseudoscalar Higgs boson in the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model, the A_1^0. In this model there are regions of parameter space where the A_1^0 can satisfy all the existing constraints from kaon and B-meson decays and mediate Sigma^+ -> p mu^+ mu^- at a level consistent with the HyperCP observation.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

Basis-independent methods for the two-Higgs-doublet model II. The significance of tan(beta)

In the most general two-Higgs-doublet model (2HDM), there is no distinction between the two complex hypercharge-one SU(2) doublet scalar fields, Phi_a (a=1,2). Thus, any two orthonormal linear combinations of these two fields can serve as a basis for the Lagrangian. All physical observables of the model must therefore be basis-independent. For example, tan(beta)=/ is basis-dependent and thus cannot be a physical parameter of the model. In this paper, we provide a basis-independent treatment of the Higgs sector with particular attention to the neutral Higgs boson mass-eigenstates, which generically are not eigenstates of CP. We then demonstrate that all physical Higgs couplings are indeed independent of tan(beta). In specialized versions of the 2HDM, tan(beta) can be promoted to a physical parameter of the Higgs-fermion interactions. In the most general 2HDM, the Higgs-fermion couplings can be expressed in terms of a number of physical "tan(beta)--like" parameters that are manifestly basis-independent. The minimal supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model provides a simple framework for exhibiting such effects.Comment: 56 pages, 5 tables, with Eq. (65) corrected (erratum to appear in Physical Review D

Single and Pair Production of Doubly Charged Higgs Bosons at Hadron Colliders

Current searches for doubly charged Higgs bosons (H^{\pm\pm}) at the Fermilab Tevatron are sensitive to single production of H^{\pm\pm}, although the pair production mechanism q\bar q\to H^{++}H^{--} is assumed to be dominant. In the context of a Higgs Triplet Model we study the mechanism q'\bar q\to H^{\pm\pm}H^{\mp} at the Tevatron and CERN Large Hadron Collider, and show that its inclusion can significantly improve the search potential for H^{\pm\pm}. Moreover, assuming that the neutrino mass is generated solely by the triplet field Yukawa coupling to leptons, we compare the branching ratios of H^{\pm\pm}\to l^\pm l^\pm and H^{\pm\pm}\to H^\pm W^* for the cases of a normal hierarchical, inverted hierarchical and degenerate neutrino mass spectrum.Comment: 17 pages, 15 figures, references added, version to appear in PR

Global fit to Higgs signal strengths and couplings and implications for extended Higgs sectors

The most recent LHC data have provided a considerable improvement in the precision with which various Higgs production and decay channels have been measured. Using all available public results from ATLAS, CMS and the Tevatron, we derive for each final state the combined confidence level contours for the signal strengths in the (gluon fusion + ttH associated production) versus (vector boson fusion + VH associated production) space. These "combined signal strength ellipses" can be used in a simple, generic way to constrain a very wide class of New Physics models in which the couplings of the Higgs boson deviate from the Standard Model prediction. Here, we use them to constrain the reduced couplings of the Higgs boson to up-quarks, down-quarks/leptons and vector boson pairs. We also consider New Physics contributions to the loop-induced gluon-gluon and photon-photon couplings of the Higgs, as well as invisible/unseen decays. Finally, we apply our fits to some simple models with an extended Higgs sector, in particular to Two-Higgs-Doublet models of Type I and Type II, the Inert Doublet model, and the Georgi-Machacek triplet Higgs model.Comment: 31 pages, 15 figures; v2: fixed important factor of 2 missing in Eq. (1) (results unchanged), extended discussion in the next-to-last paragraph of Section 3, some references added; v3: appendices and references added, matches version accepted by PR

Two Higgs Bosons at the Tevatron and the LHC?

The best fit to the Tevatron results in the bb channel and the mild excesses at CMS in the gamma-gamma channel at 136 GeV and in the tau-tau channel above 132 GeV can be explained by a second Higgs state in this mass range, in addition to the one at 125 GeV recently discovered at the LHC. We show that a scenario with two Higgs bosons at 125 GeV and 136 GeV can be consistent with practically all available signal rates, including a reduced rate in the tau-tau channel around 125 GeV as reported by CMS. An example in the parameter space of the general NMSSM is given where, moreover, the signal rates of the 125 GeV Higgs boson in the gamma-gamma channels are enhanced relative to the expectation for a SM Higgs boson of this mass.Comment: 13 pages, 4 Table