Higgs sector of the minimal left-right symmetric model

We perform an exhaustive analysis of the most general Higgs sector of the minimal left-right symmetric model (MLRM). We find that the CP properties of the vacuum state are connected to the Higgs spectrum: if CP is broken spontaneously, the MLRM does not approach the standard model in the limit of a decoupling left-right symmetry breaking scale. Depending on the size of the CP phases, scenarios with extra nondecoupling flavor-violating doublet Higgs bosons or very light SU(2) triplet Higgs bosons emerge, both of which are ruled out by phenomenology. For zero CP phases the nonstandard Higgs bosons decouple only if a very unnatural fine-tuning condition is satisfied. We also discuss generalizations to the nonminimal Higgs sector.