LHC Signals of a Heavy CP-even Higgs Boson in the NMSSM via Decays into a $Z$ and a Light CP-odd Higgs State

We study the $Z{a}_1$ decay mode of a heavy CP-even Higgs boson of the NMSSM, $h_2$, where $a_1$ is the lightest CP-odd Higgs state of this scenario, the former produced in association with a bottom-antibottom pair, and find that, despite small event rates, a significant (in fact essentially background free) signal should be extractable at the LHC with very high luminosity, so long that a $Z\to jj$ (where $j$ represents a jet) and $a_1\to {\tau }^{+}{\tau }^{-}$ final state is exploited, in presence of $b$-tagging