Associated production of CP-odd and charged Higgs bosons at hadron colliders -: art. no. 075008

In the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), the masses of the charged Higgs boson (H+/-) and the CP-odd scalar (A) are related by M-H(+2)=M-A(2)+m(W)(2) at the Born level. Because the coupling of W--A-H+ is fixed by the gauge interaction, the Born level production rate of q (q) over bar (')-->W+/-*-->AH(+/-) depends on only one supersymmetry parameter-the mass (M-A) of A. We examine the sensitivity of the CERN LHC to this signal event in the A(-->b (b) over bar )H+(-->tau(+)nu(tau)) and A(-->b (b) over bar )H+(-->t (b) over bar) decay channels. We illustrate how to test the mass relation between A and H+ in case the signal is found. If the signal is not found, the product of the decay branching ratios of A and H+/- predicted by the MSSM is bounded from above as a function of M-A.