UPPER-BOUNDS ON THE LIGHTEST HIGGS BOSON MASS IN GENERAL SUPERSYMMETRIC STANDARD MODELS

In a general supersymmetric standard model there is an upper bound m(h) On the tree-level mass of the CP = +1 lightest Higgs boson which depends on the electroweak scale, tan beta and the gauge and Yukawa couplings of the theory. When radiative corrections are included, the allowed region in the (m(h), m(t)) plane depends on the scale LAMBDA, below which the theory remains perturbative, and the supersymmetry breaking scale LAMBDA(s), that we fix to 1 TeV. In the minimal model with LAMBDA = 10(16) GeV: m(h) < 130 GeV and m(t) < 185 GeV. In non-minimal models with an arbitrary number of gauge singlets and LAMBDA = 10(16) GeV: m(h) < 145 GeV and m(t) < 185 GeV. We also consider supersymmetric standard models with arbitrary Higgs sectors. For models whose couplings saturate the scale LAMBDA = 10(16) GeV we find m(h) < 155 GeV and m(t) < 190 GeV. As one pushes the saturation scale LAMBDA down to LAMBDA(s), the bounds on m(h) and m(t) increase. For instance, in models with LAMBDA = 10 TeV, the upper bounds for m(h) and m(t) go to 415 GeV and 385 GeV, respectively.