Prospects for Heavy Neutral SUSY HIGGS Scalars in the hMSSM and Natural SUSY at LHC Upgrades

We examine production and decay of heavy neutral SUSY Higgs bosons pp -> H, A -> tau(tau) over bar within the hMSSM and compare against a perhaps more plausible natural supersymmetry scenario dubbed M-h(125) (nat) which allows for a natural explanation for M-weak similar or equal to M-W,M-Z,M-h similar to 100 GeV while maintaining m h 125 GeV. We evaluate signal against various Standard Model backgrounds from gamma, Z -> tau(tau) over bar, t (t) over bar and vector boson pair production VV. We combine the transverse mass method for back-to-back (BtB) taus along with the ditau mass peak m(tau tau) method for acollinear taus as our signal channels. This technique ultimately gives a boost to the signal significance over the standard technique of using just the BtB signal channel. We evaluate both the 95% CL exclusion and 5 sigma discovery reach in the m(A) vs. tan beta plane for present LHC with 139 fb (-1), Run 3 with 300 fb(-1) and high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) with 3000 fb(-1 )of integrated luminosity. For tan beta = 10, the exclusion limits range up to m(A) similar to 1, 1.1 and 1.4 TeV, respectively. These may be compared to the range of m(A) values gleaned from a statistical analysis of the string landscape wherein m(A) can range up to similar to 8 TeV.

Automated summary

This study examines the production and decay of heavy neutral SUSY Higgs bosons in different supersymmetry scenarios, utilizing a combination of back-to-back and acollinear mass peak techniques for signal channels. The evaluation includes exclusion and discovery limits at the LHC, compared to results from a statistical analysis of the string landscape.