Status of the Exclusive MSSM Higgs production at LHC after the Run I

Abstract

We investigate the prospects for Central Exclusive Diffractive (CED) production of MSSM Higgs bosons at the LHC using forward proton detectors (FPD) proposed to be installed 220 m and 420 m from ATLAS and CMS detectors. We summarize the situation after the first and very successful data taking period of the LHC. The discovery of a Higgs boson and results from searches for additional MSSM Higgs bosons from the ATLAS and CMS, have recently led to a proposal of new low-energy MSSM benchmark scenarios. The CED signal cross section for the process H -> bb and its backgrounds are estimated in these new scenarios. We also comment on the experimental procedure if the proposed FPDs are to be used to measure the CED signal.