Consistency of LEP event excesses with anh→aadecay scenario and low-fine-tuning next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard models

We examine the LEP limits for the $Zh\to Z+b$’s final state and find that the excess of observed events for $m_h\sim 100\mathrm{GeV}$ correlates well with there being an $m_h\sim 100\mathrm{GeV}$ Higgs boson with SM-like $ZZh$ coupling that decays partly via $h\to b\overline{b}+{\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-}$ [with $B(h\to b\overline{b})\sim 0.08$] but dominantly via $h\to aa$ [with $B(h\to aa)\sim 0.9$], where $m_a<2m_b$ so that $a\to {\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-}$ (or light quarks and gluons) decays are dominant. This type of scenario is precisely that predicted in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Model for parameter choices yielding the lowest possible fine-tuning.