This paper presents the final interpretation of the results from
DELPHI on the searches for Higgs bosons in the Minimal
Supersymmetric extension of the Standard Model (MSSM).
A few representative scenarios are considered, that include
CP conservation and explicit CP violation in the Higgs sector.
The experimental results encompass the searches for
neutral Higgs bosons at LEP1 and LEP2 in final states as
expected in the MSSM, as well as LEP2 searches for charged
Higgs bosons and for neutral Higgs bosons decaying into
hadrons independent of the quark flavour.
The data reveal no significant excess with respect to
background expectations. The results are translated into excluded
regions of the parameter space in the various scenarios.
In the CP-conserving case, these lead to
limits on the masses of the lightest scalar and
pseudoscalar Higgs bosons, h and A, and on tan(beta). The
dependence of these limits on the top quark mass is discussed.
Allowing for CP violation reduces the experimental sensitivity to
Higgs bosons. It is shown that this effect depends strongly
on the values of the parameters responsible for CP
violation in the Higgs sector.
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