Charged Higgs in the NMSSM

Abstract

The charged Higgs boson decays $H^\pm\to W^\pm A_1$ and $H^\pm\to W^\pm h_i$ are studied in the framework of the next-to Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). It is found that the decay rate for H^\pm\to W^\pm A_1 can dominate both below and above the top-bottom threshold. We suggest that p p\to H^\pm A_1 is a promising discovery channel for a light charged Higgs boson in the NMSSM with small or moderate \tan\beta and dominant decay mode H^\pm \to W^\pm A_1 which leads to W^\pm A_1 A_1. This W^\pm A_1 A_1 signature can also arise from the Higgsstrahlung process pp\to W^\pm h_1 followed by the decay h_1\to A_1 A_1. It is shown that there exist regions of parameter space where these processes can have comparable cross sections and we suggest that their respective signals can be distinguished at the LHC by using appropriate reconstruction methods.