Threshold corrections to the MSSM finite-temperature Higgs potential

Abstract

In the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) the one-loop finite-temperature corrections from the squark-Higgs bosons sector are calculated, the effective two-Higgs-doublet potential is reconstructed and possibilities of the electroweak phase transition in full MSSM ($m_{H^\pm}$, ${\tt tg}β$, $A_{t,b}$, $μ$, $m_Q$, $m_U$, $m_D$) parameter space are studied. At large values of $A_{t,b}$ and $μ$ of around 1 TeV, favored indirectly by LEP2 and Tevatron data, the threshold finite-temperature corrections from triangle and box diagrams with intermediate third generation squarks are very substantial. The four types of bifurcation sets are defined for the two-Higgs-doublet potential. High sensitivity of the low-temperature evolution to the effective two-doublet and the MSSM squark sector parameters is observed, but rather extensive regions of the full MSSM parameter space allow the first-order electroweak phase transition respecting the phenomenological constraints at zero temperature. As a rule, these regions of the MSSM parameter space are in line with the case of a light stop quark.

Two plots for the criteria v_c/T_c > 1 (strongly first order phase transition) are added. 32 pages, 22 figures