Review of a Light NMSSM Pseudoscalar Higgs-State Production at the LHC

In this paper, we briefly review the LHC discovery potential of a light pseudoscalar Higgs boson of the NMSSM, a1, produced in the gluon fusion gg & RARR;a1, bottom-quark fusion bb over bar & RARR;a1 and bottom-gluon fusion bg & RARR;ba1. We also review the LHC discovery potential of the next-to-lightest CP-even Higgs boson h2 being the non-SM-like Higgs, decaying either into two light CP-odd Higgs bosons a1 or into a light a1 and the Z gauge boson through the gluon fusion gg & RARR;h2 in the 4 tau final state. We find that the light a1 can be detected at the LHC in a variety of production processes including the gluon fusion, bottom-quark fusion and bottom-gluon fusion. The latter two processes require high luminosity of the LHC and large values of tan beta. We also find that the LHC has the potential to discover the non-SM-like Higgs state, h2, decaying into a pair of light CP-odd Higgses a1's, allowing the distinguishing of the NMSSM Higgs sector from the MSSM one as such a light a1, is impossible in the latter scenario.

Automated summary

This paper briefly reviews the discovery potential of a light pseudoscalar Higgs boson a1 and the next-to-lightest CP-even Higgs boson h2 in the NMSSM model at the LHC. It is found that the light a1 can be detected through various production processes, while h2 may decay into two light a1's, aiding in distinguishing between the NMSSM Higgs sector and the MSSM one.