Interference effects in MSSM Higgs searches at the LHC

Understand

Complex parameters in the MSSM lead to mixing and interference between the two heavier neutral CP-even and CP-odd Higgs states.

• These effects can become very large in the case of almost degenerate states.
• In a CP-violating benchmark scenario, we investigate phenomenological implications of such interferences in view of the LHC searches for heavy Higgs bosons decaying to a pair of $\tau$-leptons and produced in gluon fusion and in association with b-quarks.
• Strongly destructive effects leave parameter regions unconstrained that would be regarded as excluded if no interference terms were taken into account.