Abstract
Phys.Rev.D84:035009,2011 We show the potential of the LHC to detect a CP-even Higgs boson of the
NMSSM, $h_1$ or $h_2$, decaying into two rather light CP-odd Higgs bosons,
$a_1$, by exploiting the production mode based on Higgs-strahlung off
$b$-quarks, i.e., the channel $pp\to b\bar b h_{1,2}$. We also consider the
case of $h_2\to h_1 h_1$ decays. It is found that these decays have dominant
BRs over large regions of the NMSSM parameter space where tan$\beta$ is large,
a condition which also favours the $pp\to b\bar b h_{1,2}$ production rates.
Further decays of the light Higgs boson pairs ($a_1$ and $h_1$) into photon,
muon, tau and $b$ final states are also considered. The overall production and
decay rates for these processes at inclusive level are sizable and should help
extracting at least one Higgs boson signal over the NMSSM parameter space.