Complementarity of the CERN LEP collider, the Fermilab Tevatron, and the CERN LHC in the search for a light MSSM Higgs boson

Abstract

We study the discovery potential of the CERN LHC, Fermilab Tevatron and CERN LEP colliders in the search for the neutral $\mathrm{CP}$-even Higgs boson of the MSSM which couples to the weak gauge bosons with a strength close to the standard model one and, hence, plays a relevant role in the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking. We place special emphasis on the radiative effects which influence the discovery reach of these colliders. We concentrate on the $\mathrm{Vb}\overline{b}$ channel, with $V=Z$ or W, and on the channels with diphoton final states, which are the dominant ones for the search for a light standard model Higgs boson at LEP or Tevatron and LHC, respectively. By analyzing the parameters of the MSSM for which the searches become difficult at one or more of these three colliders, we demonstrate their complementarity in the search for a light Higgs boson which plays a relevant role in the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking.