REVIEW
Escaping the Large Fine Tuning and Little Hierarchy Problems in the Next to Minimal Supersymmetric Model and h-> aa Decays
High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Submitted 11 Feb 2005 · 28 references
Pith's verdict: The paper that made light singlet pseudoscalars a mainstream escape from MSSM fine tuning; the logic holds, but the LEP h→aa limits it leans on are imported without quantification.
T0 · AI review
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Referee report
The paper
The paper claims
The next-to-minimal supersymmetric model can reach fine-tuning as small as a few while keeping stops light, because its lightest Higgs boson hides in decays to a pair of pseudoscalars.
The reading
What carries the argument
The load-bearing object is the NMSSM minimization condition recast as a quadratic in $m_Z^2$, $m_Z^4 + 2B m_Z^2 + C = 0$, whose solution $m_Z^2 = -B pm sqrt{B^2 - C}$ permits cancellation between the two terms when $C ll B^2$. That cancellation, not any large radiative correction, is what suppresses the logarithmic derivatives $F = max_a |d log m_Z / d log a|$. The second mechanism is the light pseudoscalar: a small trilinear $A_kappa$ makes $m_{a_1}$ small, so the SM-like $h_1$ decays mainly to $a_1 a_1$, and the LEP limits on $Zh to Zaa to Zbbbb$ and $Z tau^+ tau^- tau^+ tau^-$ are weaker than the standard $h to b bar b$ limit. The paper notes that the small-$A_kappa$, small-$m_{a_1}$ regime is motivated by an approximate $U(1)_R$ symmetry.
Extended reading notes
Core claim
The central claim is that the NMSSM admits parameter choices that satisfy every available experimental constraint while keeping fine-tuning small and stops light. Two ingredients do the work. First, one combination of the NMSSM minimization conditions gives a quadratic in $m_Z^2$ of the form $m_Z^4 + 2B m_Z^2 + C = 0$, with $B$ and $C$ built from soft masses, $lambda$, $kappa$ and $tan beta$; when $C ll B^2$ the derivatives of $m_Z^2$ with respect to GUT-scale parameters cancel between the two branches of the solution, and $F$ collapses. Second, a small $A_kappa$ (of order a few GeV) keeps the pseudoscalar $a_1$ light enough that $h_1 to a_1 a_1$ dominates, which is what lets the low-$F$ points with $m_{h_1} < 114$ GeV escape LEP exclusion. The authors report $F sim 5.5$ at $sqrt{m_{tilde t_1} m_{tilde t_2}} sim 250$–$400$ GeV for $tan beta = 10$, and state that all points with $F < 20$ have $m_{h_1} < 114$ GeV and $mathrm{BR}(h_1 to a_1 a_1) > 0.70$. At $tan beta = 3$ they find $F sim 15$ at $sqrt{m_{tilde t_1} m_{tilde t_2}} sim 300$ GeV with no points above 114 GeV, all surviving through $h_1 to a_1 a_1$. Even restricting to $m_{h_1} geq 114$ GeV, the smallest $F$ found is about 24, still far below the MSSM's 185.
Load-bearing premise
The whole low-fine-tuning result rests on the claim that the LEP limits on a Higgs boson decaying to two pseudoscalars are genuinely much weaker than the standard $h to b bar b$ limit, since every point with $F < 20$ has $m_{h_1} < 114$ GeV and would be excluded if that were not so.
Editorial extensions
If this is right
- If the NMSSM cancellation mechanism is real, the fine-tuning and little-hierarchy problems are not generic to weak-scale supersymmetry; they are specific to the MSSM Higgs sector, and models with an extended Higgs sector can be natural with stops in the 250 to 400 GeV range.
- A SM-like Higgs boson below 114 GeV can still be allowed, provided its dominant decay is into a pair of light pseudoscalars; the standard LEP mass bound is then not a bound on the Higgs mass but a bound on the $h to b bar b$ branching ratio.
- Tevatron and LHC Higgs searches built around $h to b bar b$, $h to W W$, $h to tau tau$ and $h to gamma gamma$ will lose sensitivity in exactly the parameter region that is least fine-tuned, so the standard no-lose theorems do not carry over from the MSSM to the NMSSM.
- The $a_1 a_1 to tau^+ tau^- tau^+ tau^-$ final state, dominant for $2 m_tau < m_{a_1} < 2 m_b$, becomes a priority search channel; the authors argue it is not excluded by Upsilon decays because the $a_1$ has a large singlet component.
- The authors state that existing work suggesting only a marginal LHC signal in $W W to h_1 to a_1 a_1 to b bar b tau^+ tau^-$ for $m_{a_1} > 2 m_b$ should be either refuted or improved upon.
Reading between the lines
- The result reframes the naturalness debate: instead of asking how heavy superpartners must be, one should ask how many Higgs states there are and which decay channels the experiments actually cover. A model can be natural and still have escaped detection for a decade simply by routing its Higgs through an unsearched final state.
- A sharper version of this argument would quantify how much weaker the LEP $h to aa$ limits are than the $h to b bar b$ limit as a function of $m_{a_1}$, particularly near the $2 m_b$ and $2 m_tau$ thresholds; the paper does not do this, and the size of the allowed region depends on it.
- If $h_1 to a_1 a_1$ really dominates in the low-$F$ region, then the inclusive $e^+ e^- to Zh$ recoil-mass measurement is the only model-independent handle, which makes a future lepton collider the decisive instrument for this scenario rather than a complement to the LHC.
- The same logic should apply to any supersymmetric model with extra singlet states and light pseudoscalars; a systematic scan over such models would test whether the NMSSM is special or the first example of a broader class.
Original abstract
We demonstrate that the NMSSM can have small fine tuning and modest light stop mass while still evading all experimental constraints. For small tan(beta) [large tan(beta)], the relevant scenarios are such that there is always (often) a SM-like Higgs boson that decays to two lighter -- possibly much lighter -- pseudoscalar Higgses.
The compiled record
The paper's own sentences, arranged, kept beside the review and separate from it. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.
The abstract, sentence by sentence
We demonstrate that the NMSSM can have small fine tuning and modest light stop mass while still evading all experimental constraints. For small tan(beta) [large tan(beta)], the relevant scenarios are such that there is always (often) a SM-like Higgs boson that decays to two lighter -- possibly much lighter -- pseudoscalar Higgses.
background contribution method result interpretation main claim
| # | sentence | role | the authors' own work | states the main conclusion | strength |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| s0 | We demonstrate that the NMSSM can have small fine tuning and modest light stop mass while still evading all experimental constraints. | result 0.77 | 0.91 | 0.76 | asserted 1.00 |
| s1 | For small tan(beta) [large tan(beta)], the relevant scenarios are such that there is always (often) a SM-like Higgs boson that decays to two lighter -- possibly much lighter -- pseudoscalar Higgses. | result 0.98 | 0.68 | 0.22 | asserted 0.57 |
What was examined, and what was not
- arXiv listing abstract v2
- full text
- figures and tables
- references and citing sentences
- relations to other papers
- P abstract
- S sections
- T body sentences
- C citations
- R cross-paper relations
Figures
Figures reproduced from arXiv:hep-ph/0502105 by the authors.
References
How the literature uses it
88 arXiv papers cite this in 118 sentences
Papers citing it · 83 sentences without a confident label
Uses its data or values 1 paper
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From the result of the LEP we know that the lower bound of the SM Higgs mass is $114.4$GeV [ref] .[If the R-parity is broken, the lightest Higgs mass can be lower than the LEP bound [ref] .]
Constraints of the $B_{\mu}/\mu$ solution due to the hidden sector renormalization · The Basic Scheme · 0.94
Compares with it 2 papers
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The important difference is that the scenario discussed in Refs. [ref] is the usual decoupled scenario as far as the two Higgs doublet part of the Higgs spectrum is concerned (the CP-odd Higgs, the heavy CP-even Higgs and the charged Higgs are heavy and approximately degenerate) and the light CP-odd Higgs is supplied by the additional singlet.
Many Light Higgs Bosons in the NMSSM · Introduction · 0.97
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A light neutralino also appears in this region of parameters making a clear distinction with the scenario studied previously in Refs. [ref] .
Light Dark Matter and the Electroweak Phase Transition in the NMSSM · The near Peccei-Quinn symmetry limit of the NMSSM · 0.96
Cites it as support 6 papers
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As already stressed and as described below in more detail, we are particularly led to the above interpretation of LEP data since fine-tuning within the NMSSM is absent for model parameters that yield precisely this kind of scenario [ref] .
The NMSSM Solution to the Fine-Tuning Problem, Precision Electroweak Constraints and the Largest LEP Higgs Event Excess · Introduction · 0.99
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Such a Higgs can be light, as predicted from SUSY, gives better agreement with precision electroweak data, and can even explain the largest excess of Higgs like events at LEP [ref] .
Hidden Higgs Scenarios: new constraints and prospects at the LHC · Motivation for non-standard Higgs decays · 0.98
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Such a Higgs can be light, as predicted from SUSY, gives better agreement with precision electroweak data, and can even explain the largest excess of Higgs like events at LEP [ref] .
Light charged Higgs in the NMSSM · Motivation for the light charged Higgs scenario · 0.99
Cites it as background 24 papers
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The most studied scenario (and the first one to point out the improved naturalness with a hidden Higgs) is in the context of the NMSSM [ref] .
Hidden Higgs Decaying to Lepton Jets · Introduction · 0.84
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Other studies have also looked at purely Higgsino-singlino spectra [ref] , direct stop [ref] or gluino [ref] production and the possibility that the singlino may be light [ref] .
Naughty or Nice? The Role of the `N' in the Natural NMSSM for the LHC · Introduction · 0.97
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Extensions of the MSSM by a singlet chiral superfield are motivated in order to explain the size of the $μ$ term [ref] , to raise the mass of the lightest CP even Higgs boson above the LEP II bound [ref] , to reduce electroweak fine-tuning [ref] , or to catalyze electroweak baryogenesis [ref] .
Extended MSSM Neutralinos as the Source of the PAMELA Positron Excess · Introduction · 0.83
Discussion
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