Light charged Higgs boson and supersymmetry

A possible discovery of a relatively light charged Higgs boson H+ in near future experiments, with a mass MH+ less than or similar to 110 GeV, together with the present LEP2 direct limits on the chargino and neutral Higgs sectors, would disfavour the minimal supersymmetric standard model as well as its frequently discussed next-to-minimal supersymmetric extension. We show that a supersymmetric origin can naturally be ascribed to the existence of such a light charged Higgs scalar within the context of the recently introduced minimal nonminimal supersymmetric standard model. (C) 2001 Published by Elsevier Science B.V.