Search for a light Higgs boson decaying to two gluons or ss̄ in the radiative decays of Υ(1S)

We search for the decay Υ(1S)→γA^0, A^0→gg or ss , where A^0 is the pseudoscalar light Higgs boson predicted by the next-to-minimal supersymmetric Standard Model. We use a sample of (17.6±0.3)×10^6 Υ(1S) mesons produced in the BABAR experiment via e^+e^-→Υ(2S)→π^+π^-Υ(1S). We see no significant signal and set 90%-confidence-level upper limits on the product branching fraction B(Υ(1S)→γA^0)·B(A^0→gg or ss) ranging from 10^(-6) to 10^(-2) for A^0 masses in the range 0.5–9.0  GeV/c^2.