The Higgs mass in the MSSM infrared fixed point scenario

In the infrared fixed point (IFP) scenario of the minimal supersymmetric model (MSSM), the top-quark mass and other physical quantities of the low-energy theory are insensitive to the values of the parameters of the theory at some high energy scale. In this framework we evaluate the light CP-even Higgs mass, $m_h$, taking into account some important effects that had not been previously considered. In particular, the supersymmetric correction to the relation between the running and the physical top-quark masses lowers the value of $\tan \beta$, thereby implying a lower predicted value of $m_h$. Assuming a supersymmetric threshold of $M_S\le 1$ TeV and $M_t=175$ GeV, we find an upper bound of $m_h\le 97\pm 2$ GeV; the most plausible value of $m_h$ lies somewhat below the upper bound. This places the Higgs boson in the IFP scenario well within the reach of the LEP-2 Higgs search.