On the two-loop sbottom corrections to the neutral Higgs boson masses in the MSSM

We compute the O(alpha(b)alpha(s)) two-loop corrections to the neutral Higgs boson masses in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, using the effective potential approach. Such corrections can be important in the region of parameter space corresponding to tan beta much greater than 2 and sizeable mu. In spite of the formal analogy with the O(alpha(1)alpha(s)) corrections, there are important differences, since the dominant effects are controlled by the sbottom-Higgs scalar couplings. We propose a convenient renormalization scheme that avoids unphysically large threshold effects associated with the bottom mass, and absorbs the bulk of the O(alpha(b)alpha(s) + alpha(b)alpha(t)) corrections into the one-loop expression. We give general explicit formulae for the O(alpha(b)alpha(s)) corrections to the neutral Higgs boson mass matrix. We also discuss the importance of the O(alpha(b)(2)) corrections and derive a formula for their contribution to also discuss the importance of the O(alpha(b)(2)) m(h) in a simple limiting case. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.