Using Machine Learning to Search for MSSM Higgs Bosons

This paper examines the performance of machine learning in the identification of Minimally Su- persymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) Higgs Bosons, and compares this performance to that of traditional cut strategies. Two boosted decision tree algorithms were tested, scikit-learn and XGBoost. These tests indicated that machine learning can perform significantly better than traditional cuts. However, since machine learning in this form cannot be directly implemented in a real MSSM Higgs analysis, this performance information was instead used to better understand the relationships between training variables. Further studies might use this information to construct an improved cut strategy.