Search for the neutral Higgs bosons of the minimal supersymmetric standard model in pp collisions at √s = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Abstract

<jats:title>A<jats:sc>bstract</jats:sc> </jats:title> <jats:p>A search for neutral Higgs bosons of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is reported. The analysis is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7 TeV recorded with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The data were recorded in 2011 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 4.7 fb<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup> to 4.8 fb<jats:sup>−1</jats:sup>. Higgs boson decays into oppositely-charged muon or <jats:italic>τ</jats:italic> lepton pairs are considered for final states requiring either the presence or absence of <jats:italic>b</jats:italic>-jets. No statistically significant excess over the expected background is observed and exclusion limits at the 95% confidence level are derived. The exclusion limits are for the production cross-section of a generic neutral Higgs boson, <jats:italic>ϕ</jats:italic>, as a function of the Higgs boson mass and for <jats:italic>h</jats:italic>/<jats:italic>A</jats:italic>/<jats:italic>H</jats:italic> production in the MSSM as a function of the parameters <jats:italic>m</jats:italic> <jats:sub> <jats:italic>A</jats:italic> </jats:sub> and tan <jats:italic>β</jats:italic> in the <jats:inline-formula> <jats:tex-math>$ m_h^{\max } $</jats:tex-math> </jats:inline-formula> scenario for <jats:italic>m</jats:italic> <jats:sub> <jats:italic>A</jats:italic> </jats:sub> in the range of 90 GeV to 500 GeV.</jats:p>