Pair Production of MSSM Higgs Bosons in the Non-decoupling Region at the LHC

Abstract

We consider the Higgs boson signals from pair production at the LHC within the framework of the MSSM in the non-decoupling (low-m_A) region. In light of the recent observation of a SM-like Higgs boson, we argue that the exploration for Higgs pair production at the LHC is a crucial next step to probe the MSSM Higgs sector. We emphasize that the production of H^\pm A^0 and H^{+}H^{-} depends only on the electroweak gauge couplings while all the leading Higgs production channels via gluon fusion, vector-boson fusion, and Higgsstrahlung depend on additional free Higgs sector parameters. In the non-decoupling region, the five MSSM Higgs bosons are all relatively light and pair production signals may be accessible. We find that at the 8 TeV LHC, a 5σsignal for H^\pm A^0, H^\pm h^0 -> τ^{\pm}νb\bar b and H^{+}H^{-} -> τ^{+}ντ^{-}νare achievable with an integrated luminosity of 7 (11) fb^{-1} and 24 (48) fb^{-1}, respectively for m_A=95 (130) GeV. At the 14 TeV LHC, a 5σsignal for these two channels would require as little as 4 (7) fb^{-1} and 10 (19) fb^{-1}, respectively.

20 pages, 8 figures and 3 tables. Version to appear in PRD