Beyond the MSSM Higgs bosons at the 7 TeV LHC

We consider the Higgs sector in extensions of the minimal supersymmetric standard model by higherdimension operators in the superpotential and the Ka " hler potential, in the context of Higgs searches at the LHC 7 TeV run. Such an effective field theory approach, also referred to as BMSSM, allows for a modelindependent description that may correspond to the combined effects of additional supersymmetric sectors, such as heavy singlets, triplets or gauge bosons, in which the supersymmetry-breaking mass splittings can be treated as a perturbation. We consider the current LHC dataset, based on about 1-2 fb(-1) of data to set exclusion limits on a large class of BMSSM models. We also present projections for integrated luminosities of 5 and 15 fb(-1), assuming that the ATLAS and CMS collaborations will combine their results in each channel. Our study shows that the majority of the parameter space will be probed at the 2 sigma level with 15 fb(-1) of data. A nonobservation of a Higgs boson with about 10 fb(-1) of data will point towards a Higgs SUSY spectrum with intermediate tan beta ( approximate to a few to10) and a light SM-like Higgs with somewhat enhanced couplings to bottom and tau pairs. We define a number of BMSSM benchmark scenarios and analyze the possible exclusion/ discovery channels and the projected required luminosity to probe them. We also discuss the results of the effective field theory framework for two specific models, one with a singlet superfield and one with SU(2)(L) triplets.