Nonstandard Higgs Decays and Dark Matter in the E6SSM

Abstract

We study the decays of the lightest Higgs boson within the exceptional supersymmetric (SUSY) standard model (E6SSM). The E6SSM predicts three families of Higgs-like doublets plus three SM singlets that carry U(1)_{N} charges. One family of Higgs-like doublets and one SM singlet develop vacuum expectation values. The fermionic partners of other Higgs-like fields and SM singlets form inert neutralino and chargino states. Two lightest inert neutralinos tend to be the lightest and next-to-lightest SUSY particles (LSP and NLSP). The considered model can account for the dark matter relic abundance if the lightest inert neutralino has mass close to half the Z mass. In this case the usual SM-like Higgs boson decays more than 95% of the time into either LSPs or NLSPs. As a result the decays of the lightest Higgs boson into l^{+} l^{-} + X might play an essential role in the Higgs searches. This scenario also predicts other light inert chargino and neutralino states below 200 GeV and large LSP direct detection cross-sections which is on the edge of observability of XENON100.

Comments: Parallel talk presented at 2011 Meeting of the Division of Particles and Fields of the American Physical Society (DPF 2011), Providence, Rhode Island, USA, 9-13 August 2011, 8 pages