HiggsBounds: Confronting arbitrary Higgs sectors with exclusion bounds from LEP and the Tevatron

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.