Calculating the Bound on the Light Higgs Mass in General SUSY Models

Abstract

In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) the existence of an upper bound on the mass of the $CP=+1$ lightest Higgs boson, equal to $m_Z$ at tree--level and $\simlt 120\ GeV$ after the inclusion of radiative corrections, has important phenomenological consequences for Higgs searches. A similar bound, independent of mass parameters other than the electroweak scale, can be calculated in supersymmetric models with an extended Higgs sector. In models with arbitrary Higgs sectors perturbative up to $10^{16}\ GeV$, we find, including radiative corrections, $m_h \simlt 155\ GeV$ for $m_t \simlt 190\ GeV$.