We present the Fortran code SuSpect version 2.3, which calculates the Supersymmetric and Higgs particle spectrum in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM). The calculation can be performed in constrained models with universal boundary conditions at high scales such as the gravity (mSUGRA), anomaly (AMSB) or gauge (GMSB) mediated supersymmetry breaking models, but also in the nonuniversal MSSM case with R-parity and CP conservation. Care has been taken to treat important features such as the renormalization group evolution of parameters between low and high energy scales, the consistent implementation of radiative electroweak symmetry breaking and the calculation of the physical masses of the Higgs bosons and supersymmetric particles taking into account the dominant radiative corrections. Some checks of important theoretical and experimental features, such as the absence of non desired minima, large fine-tuning in the electroweak symmetry breaking condition, as well as agreement with precision measurements can be performed. The program is simple to use, self-contained and can easily be linked to other codes; it is rather fast and flexible, thus allowing scans of the parameter space with several possible options and choices for model assumptions and approximations.* The program with all relevant information can be downloaded from the web at the http site: www.lpta.univ-montp2.fr/~kneur/Suspect or obtained by sending an E-mail to one of the authors,

An accord specifying a unique set of conventions for supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model together with generic file structures for 1) supersymmetric model specifications and input parameters, 2) electroweak scale supersymmetric mass and coupling spectra, and 3) decay tables is presented, to provide a universal interface between spectrum calculation programs, decay packages, and high energy physics event generators. 1 skands@fnal.gov. See home.fnal.gov/∼skands/slha/ for updates and examples.

We present the implementation of the radiative corrections of the Higgs sector in three public computer codes for the evaluation of the particle spectrum in the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model, SoftSusy, SPheno and SuSpect. We incorporate the full one-loop corrections to the Higgs boson masses and the electroweak symmetry breaking conditions, as well as the two-loop corrections controlled by the strong gauge coupling and the Yukawa couplings of the third generation fermions. We include also the corrections controlled by the τ Yukawa coupling that we derived for completeness. The computation is consistently performed in the DR renormalisation scheme. In a selected number of MSSM scenarios, we study the effect of these corrections and analyse the impact of some higher order effects. By considering the renormalisation scheme and scale dependence, and the effect of the approximation of zero external momentum in the two-loop corrections, we estimate the theoretical uncertainty on the lighter Higgs boson mass to be 3 to 5 GeV. The uncertainty on M h due to the experimental error in the measurement of the SM input parameters is approximately of the same size. Finally, we discuss the phenomenological consequences, using the latest value of the top quark mass. We find, in particular, that the most conservative upper bound on the lighter Higgs boson mass in the general MSSM is M h < ∼ 152 GeV and that there is no lower bound on the parameter tan β from non-observation of the MSSM Higgs bosons at LEP2.