Nonstandard Higgs Boson Decays

Abstract

This review summarizes the motivations for and phenomenological consequences of nonstandard Higgs boson decays, with emphasis on final states containing a pair of non-Standard-Model particles that subsequently decay to Standard Model particles. Typically these non-Standard-Model particles are part of a ``hidden'' sector, for example a pair of neutral Higgs bosons or a pair of unstable neutralinos. We emphasize that such decays allow for a Higgs substantially below the Standard Model Higgs LEP limit of 114 GeV. This in turn means that the ``fine-tuning'' problems of many Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) theories, in particular supersymmetric models, can be eliminated while achieving excellent consistency with precision electroweak data which favor a Higgs boson with mass below $100\gev$ and standard $WW$, $ZZ$, and top couplings.

53 pages, review intended for Annual Reviews of Nuclear Science. Final corrections and references now included