The decays h⁰→bb̄ and h⁰→cc̄ in the light of the MSSM with quark flavour violation

We calculate the decay width of h⁰→bb̄ in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) with quark flavour violation (QFV) at full one-loop level. We study the effect of c̃−t̃ mixing and s̃−b̃ mixing taking into account the constraints from the B meson data. We discuss and compare in detail the decays h⁰→cc̄ and h⁰→bb̄ within the framework of the perturbative mass insertion technique using the Flavour Expansion Theorem. The deviation of both decay widths from the Standard Model values can be quite large. Whereas in h⁰→cc̄ it is almost entirely due to the flavour violating part of the MSSM, in h⁰→bb̄ it is mainly due to the flavour conserving part. Nevertheless, the QFV contribution to Γ(h⁰→bb̄) due to c̃−t̃ mixing and chargino exchange can go up to ∼7%.