CP-violating MSSM Higgs bosoms in the light of LEP 2

In the MSSM, the CP parities of the neutral Higgs bosons may be mixed by radiative effects induced by explicit CP violation in the third generation of squarks. To allow for this possibility, we argue that the charged Higgs-boson mass and tan beta should be used to parametrize the MSSM Higgs sector. We introduce a new benchmark scenario of maximal CP violation appropriate for direct searches of CP-violating MSSM Higgs bosons. We show that the bounds established by LEP 2 on the MSSM Higgs sector may be substantially relaxed at low and intermediate values of tan beta in the presence of CP violation, and comment on possible Higgs boson signatures at LEP 2 within this framework. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.