Top quark decay into charged Higgs boson in a general Two-Higgs-Doublet model: implications for the TEVATRON data

We analyze the unconventional top quark decay mode t -> H^+ b at the quantum level within the context of general Two-Higgs-Doublet models by including the full electroweak effects from the Yukawa couplings. The results are presented in the on-shell renormalization scheme with a physically well motivated definition of tan(beta). While the QCD corrections have been taken into account in the current experimental analyses of that decay, the electroweak effects have always been neglected. However, we find that they can be rather large and could dramatically alter the interpretation of the present data from the Tevatron collider. For instance, in large portions of the parameter space the electroweak effects prevent the Tevatron data from placing any bound at all to the charged Higgs mass for essentially any value of tan(beta).Comment: 11 pages, LaTeX, 4 figs included using epsfi

Yukawa-coupling corrections to scalar quark decays

Heavy squark decays into top and charginos or neutralinos could be an unexpected source of top quarks at hadron colliders. A detailed treatment of these processes is necessary for a reliable calculation of both the top quark production cross-section and the standard top quark branching ratio in the MSSM. Along this line we compute the electroweak corrections to the sbottom decays sbottom_a --> chargino_i top within the Yukawa coupling approximation. The calculation of these higher order contributions requires renormalization of both the bottom squark mixing angle and of tan(beta). This type of corrections gives the leading order electroweak effects at low and high tan(beta).Comment: 16 pages, LaTeX, 5 figures included using epsfig. Comments added, equation 25 corrected, labels of fig.2 corrected, references update

Quantum SUSY signatures in low and high energy processes

In the search for phenomenological evidence of supersymmetry through the indirect method of quantum signatures, it is useful to seek correlations of the non-standard quantum effects in low and high energy proceses, such as those involving on one hand the properties of the B-mesons and on the other hand the physics of the top quark and of the Higgs bosons. There are regions of the MSSM parameter space where the potential quantum SUSY signatures in the two energy regimes are strongly interwoven and therefore the eventual detection of these correlated quantum effects would strongly point towards the existence of underlying supersymmetric dynamics.Comment: 17 pages, LaTeX, 7 figs included with epsfig. Talk at the 5th International Workshop on High Energy Physics Phenomenology (WHEPP-5). To appear in the Proceeding

Production and FCNC decay of supersymmetric Higgs bosons into heavy quarks in the LHC

We analyze the production and subsequent decay of the neutral MSSM Higgs bosons (h = h^0, H^0, A^0) mediated by flavor changing neutral currents (FCNC) in the LHC collider. We have computed the h-production cross-section times the FCNC branching ratio, \sigma(pp -> h -> qq') = \sigma(pp -> h) B(h -> qq'), in the LHC focusing on the strongly-interacting FCNC sector. Here qq' is an electrically neutral pair of quarks of different flavors, the dominant modes being those containing a heavy quark: tc or bs. We determine the maximum production rates for each of these modes and identify the relevant regions of the MSSM parameter space, after taking into account the severe restrictions imposed by low energy FCNC processes. The analysis of \sigma(pp -> h -> qq') singles out regions of the MSSM parameter space different from those obtained by maximizing only the branching ratio, due to non-trivial correlations between the parameters that maximize/minimize each isolated factor. The production rates for the bs channel can be huge for a FCNC process (0.1-1 pb), but its detection can be problematic. The production rates for the tc channel are more modest (10^{-3}-10^{-2} pb), but its detection should be easier due to the clear-cut top quark signature. A few thousand tc events could be collected in the highest luminosity phase of the LHC, with no counterpart in the SM.Comment: 25 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, LaTeX 2e. Typos corrected. Version to appear in JHE

Detecting heavy charged Higgs bosons at the LHC with triple b-tagging

We investigate the charged Higgs boson signal at the LHC using its dominant production and decay modes with triple b-tagging, i.e. $tH^- \to t\bar tb \to b\bar bb W^+ W^-$, followed by leptonic decay of one W and hadronic decay of the other. We consider the continuum background from the associated production of $t\bar t$ with a b- or a light quark or gluon jet, which can be mis-tagged as b-jet. We reconstruct the top quark masses to identify the 3rd b-jet accompanying the $t\bar t$ pair, and use its p_T distribution to distinguish the signal from the background. Combining this with the reconstruction of the $H^\pm$ mass gives a viable signature over two interesting regions of the parameter space - i.e. $\tan\beta \sim 1$ and $\sim m_t/m_b$.Comment: 10 pages, latex, 4 figure

FCNC top quark decay in the MSSM: a door to SUSY physics in high luminosity colliders?

We study the FCNC top quark decays t -> c h in the framework of the MSSM, where h= h^0,H^0,A^0 is any of the supersymmetric neutral Higgs bosons. We include the leading set of SUSY-QCD and SUSY electroweak contributions. While the FCNC top quark decay into the SM Higgs boson has such a negligible rate that will not be accessible to any presently conceivable accelerator, we find that there is a chance that the potential rates in the MSSM can be measured at the high luminosity colliders round the corner, especially at the LHC and possibly at a future LC, but we deem it difficult at the upgraded Tevatron. In view of the large SUSY-QCD effects that we find in the Higgs channels, and due to some discrepancies in the literature, we have revisited the FCNC top quark decay into gluon, t -> c g, in our framework. We confirm that the possibility of sizeable rates does not necessarily require a general pattern of gluino-mediated FCNC interactions affecting both the LH and the RH sfermion sectors -- the LH one being sufficient. However, given the present bounds on sparticle masses, the gluon channel turns out to lie just below the expected experimental sensibility, so our general conclusion is that the Higgs channels t -> c h (especially the one for the light CP-even Higgs) have the largest potential top quark FCNC rates in the MSSM, namely of order 10^-4.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX2e, 10 figs. included. Title changed. Note and references adde