Invisible decays of the supersymmetric higgs and dark matter

Abstract

We discuss effects of the light sparticles on decays of the lightest Higgs in a supersymmetric model with nonuniversal gaugino masses at the high scale, focusing on the invisible f decays into neutralinos. These can impact significanlty the discovery possibilities of the lightest Higgs at the LHC. We show that due to these decays, there exist regions of the M₂-μ space where the B.R. (h→γγ) becomes dangerously low even after imposing the LEP constraints on the sparticle masses, implying a possible preclusion of its discovery in the γγ channel. We find that there exist regions in the parameter space with acceptable relic density and where the ratio B.R.(h→γγ)SUSY/ B.R.(h→γγ)SM falls below 0.6, implying loss of signal γγ in the channel. These regions correspond to χ^~+₁, χ^~0₂ masses which should be accessible already at the Tevatron. Further we find that considerations of relic density put lower limit on the U(1) gaugino mass parameter M₁ independently of μ tan β and m₀.