Accommodating the LHC charged Higgs boson excess at 130 GeV in the general Two-Higgs Doublet Model

Abstract Charged Higgs bosons are common predictions in most extensions of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs sector. Therefore, their observation would elucidate the nature of the Higgs sector. Motivated by the ATLAS collaboration's latest analysis performed with 139~fb^-1 of Run 2 data intended to search for charged Higgs boson, produced in top quark decay and subsequently decaying via H^ cb, where an excess with a local significance of 3 is observed at m₇^ = 130~GeV, we discuss here the possibility of explaining such excess in the context of the general 2-Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM type-III), after satisfying all theoretical and up-to-date experimental constraints. We also propose phenomenological scenarios to further explore the mass region around 130 GeV in the four Yukawa types of the 2HDM type-III and suggest alternative decay channel H^ cs and/or H^ W^ *h to probe the nature of the observed excess (if it is not a statistical fluctuation). Future searches for H^ will be critical in confirming or refuting the first hint of a light charged Higgs boson at the LHC.