Two-photon decays of the lightest Higgs boson of supersymmetry at the LHC

Abstract

We discuss the production and two-photon decay of the lightest Higgs boson (h) of the minimal supersymmetric standard model at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Since the observability of the signal is quite model dependent, we conduct a thorough scan of the parameter space of minimal supersymmetry, including experimental and theoretical constraints. If kinematically allowed, supersymmetric decay modes of h may be important, and can even dominate all others. The coupling of h to $b\overline b$ can be different from that of a standard model Higgs boson; this can diminish (or enhance, but only if tan$\beta$ is very large) the h -> $\gamma\gamma$ signal. We emphasize the importance of a full treatment of radiative corrections in the Higgs sector for obtaining the h $b\overline b$ coupling. If supersymmetric particles are not too heavy, their contributions in loops can either enhance or suppress both the production cross-section and the h -> $\gamma\gamma$ branching fraction. We discuss the relative importance of these factors in the context of various scenarios for the discovery of supersymmetry. Even if h is not detected at the LHC, h may still exist in its expected mass region.