Development of a Benchmark Parameter Scan for Higgs Bosons in the NMSSM Model and a Study of the Sensitivity for $H \to AA \to 4\tau$ in Vector Boson Fusion with the ATLAS Detector

An evaluation of the discovery potential for NMSSM Higgs bosons of the ATLAS experiment at the LHC is presented. For this purpose, seven two-dimensional benchmark planes in the six-dimensional parameter space of the NMSSM Higgs sector are defined. These planes include different types of phenomenology for which the discovery of NMSSM Higgs bosons is especially challenging and which are considered typical for the NMSSM. They are subsequently used to give a detailed evaluation of the Higgs boson discovery potential based on Monte Carlo studies from the ATLAS collaboration. Afterwards, the possibility of discovering NMSSM Higgs bosons via the $H1 \to A1A1 \to 4\tau \to 4\mu+8\nu$ decay chain and with the vector boson fusion production mode is investigated. A particular emphasis is put on the mass reconstruction from the complex final state. Furthermore, a study of the jet reconstruction performance at the ATLAS experiment which is of crucial relevance for vector boson fusion searches is presented. A good detectability of the so-called tagging jets that originate from the scattered partons in the vector boson fusion process is of critical importance for an early Higgs boson discovery in many models and also within the framework of the NMSSM.