Higgs-boson pole masses in the MSSM with explicit CP violation

Extending previous results obtained in the effective-potential approach, we derive analytic expressions for the pole masses of the charged and neutral Higgs bosons in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) with explicit CP violation. In such a minimal supersymmetric model, the CP invariance of the Higgs potential is explicitly broken by quantum effects dominated by third generation squarks at the one-loop level and by one-loop gluino- and higgsino-mediated threshold corrections to the top- and bottom-quark Yukawa couplings at the two-loop level. Field-theoretic issues arising in the description of a two-level Higgs-boson system strongly mixed due to CP violation are addressed. Numerical results for the pole masses of the CP-violating Higgs bosons are presented, and comparisons are made with previous results obtained in the effective-potential approach. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.