The "96 GeV excess'' at the ILC

Abstract: The CMS collaboration reported an intriguing \sim 3 sigma (local) excess at 96 GeV in the light Higgs-boson search in the diphoton decay mode. This mass coincides with a \sim 2 sigma (local) excess in the bb final state at LEP. We present the interpretation of this possible signal as the lightest Higgs boson in the 2 Higgs Doublet Model with an additional real Higgs singlet (N2HDM). It is shown that the type II and type IV (flipped) of the N2HDM can perfectly accommodate both excesses simultaneously, while being in agreement with all experimental and theoretical constraints. The excesses are most easily accommodated in the type II N2HDM, which resembles the Yukawa structure of supersymmetric models. We discuss the experimental prospects for constraining our explanation at future $e^+e^-$ colliders, with concrete analyses based on the ILC prospects.