Phenomenology of the inflation-inspired NMSSM at the electroweak scale
Résumé
The concept of Higgs inflation can be elegantly incorporated in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM). A linear combination of the two Higgs-doublet fields plays the role of the inflaton which is non-minimally coupled to gravity. This non-minimal coupling appears in the low-energy effective superpotential and changes the phenomenology at the electroweak scale. While the field content of the inflation-inspired model is the same as in the NMSSM, there is another contribution to the $\mu $ term in addition to the vacuum expectation value of the singlet. We explore this extended parameter space and point out scenarios with phenomenological differences compared to the pure NMSSM. A special focus is set on the electroweak vacuum stability and the parameter dependence of the Higgs and neutralino sectors. We highlight regions which yield a SM-like $125\,\hbox {GeV}$ Higgs boson compatible with the experimental observations and are in accordance with the limits from searches for additional Higgs bosons. Finally, we study the impact of the non-minimal coupling to gravity on the Higgs mixing and in turn on the decays of the Higgs bosons in this model.
Mots clés
new physics
supersymmetry
minimal supersymmetric standard model
superpotential
inflaton: Higgs particle
Higgs particle: mixing
Higgs particle: doublet: 2
Higgs particle: coupling
gravitation: coupling
coupling: Higgs
coupling: nonminimal
electroweak interaction: vacuum state
vacuum state: stability
mu-problem