Two-loop corrections to radiative electroweak symmetry breaking in the MSSM Original Research Article

We study the O(αtαs+αt2) two-loop corrections to the minimization conditions of the MSSM effective potential, providing compact analytical formulae for the Higgs tadpoles. We connect these results with the renormalization group running of the MSSM parameters from the grand unification scale down to the weak scale, and discuss the corrections to the Higgs mixing parameter μ and to the running CP-odd Higgs mass mA in various scenarios of gravity-mediated SUSY breaking. We find that the O(αtαs) and O(αt2) contributions partially cancel each other in the minimization conditions. In comparison with the full one-loop corrections, the O(αtαs+αt2) two-loop corrections significantly weaken the dependence of the parameters μ and mA on the renormalization scale at which the effective potential is minimized. The residual two-loop and higher-order corrections to μ and mA are estimated to be at most 1% in the considered scenarios.