Implications of a high mass light MSSM Higgs scalar for supersymmetry searches at the LHC

The Atlas and CMS groups have both reported an excess of events in the WW*→⁺^-+ETᵐⁱˢˢ search channel, which could be the first evidence for the Higgs boson. In the MSSM, the lightest SUSY Higgs scalar h is expected to occur with mass mₕ135 GeV, depending on the range of SUSY parameters scanned over. Since the h→WW* branching fraction falls swiftly with decreasing mₕ, a signal in the WW* channel would favor an h at the high end of its predicted mass range. We scan over general GUT scale SUSY model parameters to find those which give rise to mₕ130 GeV. A value of m₀~10--20 TeV is favored, with A₀~±2m₀, while the lower range of m1/21 TeV is also slightly favored. This gives rise to an ``effective SUSY'' type of sparticle mass spectrum. For low m1/2, gluino pairs may be accessible to LHC searches, while for higher m1/2 values, the SUSY spectra would likely be out of range of LHC reach.