Recent Developments in HiggsBounds and a Preview of HiggsSignals

Abstract

We report on recent developments in the public computer code HiggsBounds, which confronts arbitrary Higgs sector predictions with 95% C.L. exclusion limits from Higgs searches at the LEP, Tevatron and LHC experiments. We discuss in detail the performance of the Standard Model (SM) likeness test as implemented in the latest version HiggsBounds-3.8.0, whose outcome decides whether a search for a SM Higgs boson can be applied to a model beyond the SM. Furthermore, we give a preview of features in the upcoming version HiggsBounds-4.0.0 and the new program HiggsSignals, which performs a chi-squared test of Higgs sector predictions against the signal rate and mass measurements from Higgs boson analyses at the Tevatron and LHC. This is illustrated with an example where the heavier CP-even Higgs boson of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is considered as an explanation of the LHC Higgs signal at ~126 GeV.