Search for neutral Higgs bosons of the minimal supersymmetric standard model in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

A search for the neutral Higgs bosons predicted by the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is reported. The analysis is performed on data from proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The samples used for this search were collected in 2012 and correspond to integrated luminosities in the range 19.5 - 20.3 fb$^{-1}$. The MSSM Higgs bosons are searched for in the $\tau\tau$ final state. No significant excess over the expected background is observed, and exclusion limits are derived for the production cross section times branching fraction of a scalar particle as a function of its mass. The results are also interpreted in the MSSM parameter space for various benchmark scenarios.