Detection prospects of light NMSSM Higgs pseudoscalar via cascades of heavier scalars from vector boson fusion and Higgs-strahlung

A detection at the Large Hadron Collider of a light Higgs pseudoscalar would, if interpreted in a supersymmetric framework, be a smoking gun signature of non-minimal supersymmetry. In this work in the framework of the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model we focus on vector boson fusion and Higgs-strahlung production of heavier scalars that subsequently decay into pairs of light pseudoscalars. We demonstrate that although these channels have in general very limited reach, they are viable for the detection of light pseudoscalars in some parts of parameter space and can serve as an important complementary probe to the dominant gluon-fusion production mode. We also demonstrate that in …