Very lightCP-odd Higgs bosons of the NMSSM at the LHC in4b-quark final states

Abstract

We study the detectability of the lightest CP-odd Higgs boson of the NMSSM, $a_1$, at the LHC through its production in association with a bottom-quark pair followed by the $a_1\to b\bar b$ decay. It is shown that, for large $\tan\beta$ and very high luminosity of the LHC, there exist regions of the NMSSM parameter space that can be exploited to detect the $a_1$ through this channel. This signature is a characteristic feature of the NMSSM in comparison to the MSSM, as $a_1$ masses involved are well below those allowed in the MSSM for the corresponding CP-odd Higgs state.