We describe the new developments in version 4 of the public computer code HiggsBounds. HiggsBounds is a tool to test models with arbitrary Higgs sectors, containing both neutral and charged Higgs bosons, against the published exclusion bounds from Higgs searches at the LEP, Tevatron and LHC experiments. From the model predictions for the Higgs masses, branching ratios, production cross sections and total decay widths-which are specified by the user in the input for the program-the code calculates the predicted signal rates for the search channels considered in the experimental data. The signal rates are compared to the expected and observed cross section limits from the Higgs searches to determine whether a point in the model parameter space is excluded at 95 % confidence level. In this paper we present a modification of the HiggsBounds main algorithm that extends the exclusion test in order to ensure that it provides useful results in the presence of one or more significant excesses in the data, corresponding to potential Higgs signals. We also describe a new method to test whether the limits from an experimental search performed under certain model assumptions can be applied to a different theoretical model. Further developments discussed here include a framework to take into account theoretical uncertainties on the Higgs mass predictions, and the possibility to obtain the χ 2 likelihood of Higgs exclusion limits from LEP. Extensions to the user subroutines from earlier versions of HiggsBounds a

HiggsBounds 2.0.0 is a computer code which tests both neutral and charged Higgs sectors of arbitrary models against the current exclusion bounds from the Higgs searches at LEP and the Tevatron. As input, it requires a selection of model predictions, such as Higgs masses, branching ratios, effective couplings and total decay widths. HiggsBounds 2.0.0 then uses the expected and observed topological cross section limits from the Higgs searches to determine whether a given parameter scenario of a model is excluded at the 95% C.L. by those searches. Version 2.0.0 represents a significant extension of the code since its first release (1.0.0). It includes now 28/53 LEP/Tevatron Higgs search analyses, compared to the 11/22 in the first release, of which many of the ones from the Tevatron are replaced by updates. As a major extension, the code allows now the predictions for (singly) charged Higgs bosons to be confronted with LEP and Tevatron searches. Furthermore, the newly included analyses contain LEP searches for neutral Higgs bosons (H) decaying invisibly or into (non flavour tagged) hadrons as well as decay-mode independent searches for neutral Higgs bosons, LEP searches via the production modes τ + τ − H and bbH, and Tevatron searches via ttH. Also, all Tevatron results presented at the ICHEP'10 are included in version 2.0.0. As physics applications of HiggsBounds 2.0.0 we study the allowed Higgs mass range for model scenarios with invisible Higgs decays and we obtain exclusion results for the scalar sector of the Randall-Sundrum model using up-to-date LEP and Tevatron direct search results.

HiggsBounds is a computer code that tests theoretical predictions of models with arbitrary Higgs sectors against the exclusion bounds obtained from the Higgs searches at LEP and the Tevatron. The included experimental information comprises exclusion bounds at 95% C.L. on topological cross sections. In order to determine which search topology has the highest exclusion power, the program also includes, for each topology, information from the experiments on the expected exclusion bound, which would have been observed in case of a pure background distribution. Using the predictions of the desired model provided by the user as input, HiggsBounds determines the most sensitive channel and tests whether the considered parameter point is excluded at the 95% C.L. HiggsBounds is available as a Fortran 77 and Fortran 90 code. The code can be invoked as a command line version, a subroutine version and an online version. Examples of exclusion bounds obtained with HiggsBounds are discussed for the Standard Model, for a model with a fourth generation of quarks and leptons and for the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model with and without CP-violation. The experimental information on the exclusion bounds currently implemented in HiggsBounds will be updated as new results from the Higgs searches become available. Program summaryProgram title: HiggsBounds Catalogue identifier: AEFF_v1_0 Program summary URL:

We review the program HiggsBounds that tests theoretical predictions of models with arbitrary Higgs sectors against the exclusion bounds obtained from the Higgs searches at LEP and the Tevatron. We explicitly list the bounds that have been added after the first release of HiggsBounds.Comment: 4 pages, talk given at SUSY09, Boston, June 200

Land surface models (LSMs) typically use empirical functions to represent vegetation responses to soil drought. These functions largely neglect recent advances in plant ecophysiology that link xylem hydraulic functioning with stomatal responses to climate.We developed an analytical stomatal optimization model based on xylem hydraulics (SOX) to predict plant responses to drought. Coupling SOX to the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) LSM, we conducted a global evaluation of SOX against leaf-and ecosystemlevel observations. SOX simulates leaf stomatal conductance responses to climate for woody plants more accurately and parsimoniously than the existing JULES stomatal conductance model. An ecosystem-level evaluation at 70 eddy flux sites shows that SOX decreases the sensitivity of gross primary productivity (GPP) to soil moisture, which improves the model agreement with observations and increases the predicted annual GPP by 30% in relation to JULES. SOX decreases JULES root-mean-square error in GPP by up to 45% in evergreen tropical forests, and can simulate realistic patterns of canopy water potential and soil water dynamics at the studied sites.SOX provides a parsimonious way to incorporate recent advances in plant hydraulics and optimality theory into LSMs, and an alternative to empirical stress factors.

Abstract. Studies of climate change impacts on the terrestrial biosphere have been completed without recognition of the integrated nature of the biosphere. Improved assessment of the impacts of climate change on food and water security requires the development and use of models not only representing each component but also their interactions. To meet this requirement the Joint UK Land Environment Simulator (JULES) land surface model has been modified to include a generic parametrisation of annual crops. The new model, JULES-crop, is described and evaluation at global and site levels for the four globally important crops; wheat, soybean, maize and rice. JULES-crop demonstrates skill in simulating the inter-annual variations of yield for maize and soybean at the global and country levels, and for wheat for major spring wheat producing countries. The impact of the new parametrisation, compared to the standard configuration, on the simulation of surface heat fluxes is largely an alteration of the partitioning between latent and sensible heat fluxes during the later part of the growing season. Further evaluation at the site level shows the model captures the seasonality of leaf area index, gross primary production and canopy height better than in the standard JULES. However, this does not lead to an improvement in the simulation of sensible and latent heat fluxes. The performance of JULES-crop from both an Earth system and crop yield model perspective is encouraging. However, more effort is needed to develop the parametrisation of the model for specific applications. Key future model developments identified include the introduction of processes such as irrigation and nitrogen limitation which will enable better representation of the spatial variability in yield.

We discuss Higgs boson decays in the CP-violating MSSM, and examine their phenomenological impact using cross section limits from the LEP Higgs searches. This includes a discussion of the full 1-loop results for the partial decay widths of neutral Higgs bosons into lighter neutral Higgs bosons (h a → h b h c ) and of neutral Higgs bosons into fermions (h a → ff ). In calculating the genuine vertex corrections, we take into account the full spectrum of supersymmetric particles and all complex phases of the supersymmetric parameters. These genuine vertex corrections are supplemented with Higgs propagator corrections incorporating the full one-loop and the dominant two-loop contributions, and we illustrate a method of consistently treating diagrams involving mixing with Goldstone and Z bosons. In particular, the genuine vertex corrections to the process h a → h b h c are found to be very large and, where this process is kinematically allowed, can have a significant effect on the regions of the CPX benchmark scenario which can be excluded by the results of the Higgs searches at LEP. However, there remains an unexcluded region of CPX parameter space at a lightest neutral Higgs boson mass of ∼ 45 GeV. In the analysis, we pay particular attention to the conversion between parameters defined in different renormalisation schemes and are therefore able to make a comparison to the results found using renormalisation group improved/effective potential calculations. *

We report on recent developments in the public computer code HiggsBounds, which confronts arbitrary Higgs sector predictions with 95% C.L. exclusion limits from Higgs searches at the LEP, Tevatron and LHC experiments. We discuss in detail the performance of the Standard Model (SM) likeness test as implemented in the latest version HiggsBounds-3.8.0, whose outcome decides whether a search for a SM Higgs boson can be applied to a model beyond the SM. Furthermore, we give a preview of features in the upcoming version HiggsBounds-4.0.0 and the new program HiggsSignals, which performs a χ 2 test of Higgs sector predictions against the signal rate and mass measurements from Higgs boson analyses at the Tevatron and LHC. This is illustrated with an example where the heavier CP-even Higgs boson of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) is considered as an explanation of the LHC Higgs signal at 126 GeV.