Testing supersymmetry in the associated production of CP-odd and charged Higgs bosons

In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), the masses of the charged Higgs boson (H+/-) and the CP-odd scalar (A) are related by M-H+(2) = M-A(2) + m(W)(2). Furthermore, because the coupling of W--A-H+ is fixed by gauge interaction, the tree level production rate of q (q) over bar ' --> W+/-* --> AH(+/-) depends only on one supersymmetry parameter-the mass (M-A) of A. We show that to a good approximation this conclusion also holds at the one-loop level. Consequently, this process can be used to distinguish MSSM from its alternatives (such as a general two-Higgs-doublet model) by verifying the above mass relation, and to test the prediction of the MSSM on the product of the decay branching ratios of A and H+/- in terms of only one single parameter-M-A. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.