Search for the neutral Higgs bosons of the Standard Model and the MSSM in collisions at GeV

Neutral Higgs bosons of the Standard Model and of the MSSM are searched for in the data collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 188.6GeV by the ALEPH experiment at LEP, with an integrated luminosity of 176 pb(-1). No evidence for a signal is found. A lower limit of 92.9GeV/c(2) at 95% confidence level is set on the mass of the Standard Model Higgs boson, with an expected sensitivity of 95.9 GeV/c(2). In the MSSM, for tan beta greater than or equal to 0.7 and for benchmark parameter choices, observed (expected) lower limits of 82.5 (83.1) GeV/c(2) and 82.6 (83.2) GeV/c(2) are derived for the masses of the neutral Higgs bosons h and A, respectively. An update of the general MSSM parameter scan is also presented.