Detecting the Supersymmetric Higgs Bosons: an Overview and the Role of Γγ Collisions

I summarize the abilities of LEP-II, the SSC/LHC hadron colliders, and a future high energy ee collider (NLC) to detect the Higgs bosons of the Minimal Supersymmetric Model (MSSM). In the case of LEP-II, I emphasize the importance of having as large a value of √ s as possible in order to guarantee discovery of the light CP-even MSSM Higgs boson (h) regardless of the top quark and stop squark masses. For the SSC/LHC particular emphasis is placed upon the comparison between results for large supersymmetric particle mass scales as opposed to smaller mass scales for which radiative corrections to the MSSM Higgs sector are smaller and neutralino-chargino pair decays of the MSSM Higgs bosons are kinematically allowed. I then focus on the unique capabilities of a back-scattered laser beam facility (BSLBF) at the NLC for detecting the heavier neutral Higgs bosons (the H and A) of the MSSM. In particular, I emphasize that typical GUT scenarios predict that the H and A are likely to be very difficult to detect at the SSC and LHC, and that mH0 and mA0 can easily be too large to allow their discovery at a √ s ∼ 500 GeV NLC. In contrast, I show that a BSLBF could well allow H and A discovery via inclusive γγ → H, A production out to masses of order 0.8√s, i.e. roughly 400 GeV, at such an NLC. In addition, a BSLBF allows one to check for CP violation in the neutral Higgs sector; such CP violation is predicted to be