Associated production of a light Higgs boson and a chargino pair in the MSSM at linear colliders

Abstract.In the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM), we study the light Higgs boson radiation off a light-chargino pair in the process $ e^{ + } e ^{-} \to h\tilde{\chi }^{ + }_{1} \tilde{\chi }^{ - }_{1} $ at linear colliders with $ {\sqrt s } = 500\;{\text{Gev}} $ GeV. We analyze cross sections in the regions of the MSSM parameter space where the process $ e^{ + } e ^{-} \to h\tilde{\chi }^{ + }_{1} \tilde{\chi }^{ - }_{1} $ cannot proceed via on-shell production and subsequent decay of either heavier charginos or the pseudoscalar Higgs boson A. Cross sections up to a few fb are allowed, according to present experimental limits on the Higgs boson, chargino and sneutrino masses. We also show how a measurement of the $ e^{ + } e ^{-} \to h\tilde{\chi }^{ + }_{1} \tilde{\chi }^{ - }_{1} $ production rate could provide a determination of the Higgs boson couplings to charginos.