LIGHTEST NEUTRAL HIGGS-BOSON PAIR PRODUCTION IN PHOTON-PHOTON COLLISIONS IN THE MINIMAL SUPERSYMMETRIC STANDARD MODEL - ART. NO. 015006

The cross sections for the lightest neutral Higgs boson pair productio n at the one-loop level in photon-photon collisions are calculated in the minimal supersymmetric standard model. We find that the contributi ons to the lightest Higgs boson pair production cross sections arising from the genuine supersymmetric virtual particles dominate over those arising from the virtual particles in the two-Higgs-doublet model (2H DM) if there is mixing between the right- and left-handed top squarks; otherwise, the contributions from the 2HDM are dominant. We present d etailed numerical results of the cross sections of the process e(+)e(- ) --> gamma gamma-->h(0)h(0) in both beamstrahlung and laser backscatt ering photon modes at the Next Linear Collider. The cross sections are typically in the range 10(-3)-10(5) fb depending on the choice of the mass of the lightest neutral Higgs boson, tan beta, and photon collis ion modes, especially whether there is mixing between the top squarks. [S0556-2821(98)00216-6].