No Arabic abstract
We study the prospects of observing the non-resonant di-Higgs pair production in the Standard Model (SM) at the high luminosity run of the 14 TeV LHC (HL-LHC), upon combining multiple final states chosen on the basis of their yield and cleanliness. In particular, we consider the $bbar{b}gamma gamma, bbar{b} tau^+ tau^-, bbar{b} WW^*, WW^*gamma gamma$ and $4W$ channels mostly focusing on final states with photons and/or leptons and study 11 final states. We employ multivariate analyses to optimise the discrimination between signal and backgrounds and find it performing better than simple cut-based analyses. The various differential distributions for the Higgs pair production have non-trivial dependencies on the Higgs self-coupling ($lambda_{hhh}$). We thus explore the implications of varying $lambda_{hhh}$ for the most sensitive search channel for the double Higgs production, textit{viz.}, $bbar{b}gammagamma$. The number of signal events originating from SM di-Higgs production in each final state is small and for this reason measurement of differential distributions may not be possible. Furthermore, we consider various physics beyond the standard model scenarios to quantify the effects of contamination while trying to measure the SM di-Higgs signals in detail. In particular, we study generic resonant heavy Higgs decays to a pair of SM-like Higgs bosons or to a pair of top quarks, heavy pseudoscalar decaying to an SM-like Higgs and a $Z$-boson, charged Higgs production in association with a top and a bottom quark and also various well-motivated supersymmetric channels. We set limits on the cross-sections for the aforementioned new physics scenarios, above which these can be seen as excesses over the SM background and affect the measurement of Higgs quartic coupling. We also discuss the correlations among various channels which can be useful to identify the new physics model.
The Higgs boson may well be a composite scalar with a finite extension in space. Owing to the momentum dependence of its couplings the imprints of such a composite pseudo Goldstone Higgs may show up in the tails of various kinematic distributions at the LHC, distinguishing it from an elementary state. From the bottom up we construct the momentum dependent form factors to capture the interactions of the composite Higgs boson with the weak gauge bosons. We demonstrate their impact in the differential distributions of various kinematic parameters for the $pprightarrow Z^*Hrightarrow l^+l^-bbar{b}$ channel. We show that this channel can provide an important avenue to probe the Higgs substructure at the HL-LHC.
The discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, by the ATLAS and CMS experiments, was a success achieved with only a percent of the entire dataset foreseen for the LHC. It opened a landscape of possibilities in the study of Higgs boson properties, Electroweak Symmetry breaking and the Standard Model in general, as well as new avenues in probing new physics beyond the Standard Model. Six years after the discovery, with a conspicuously larger dataset collected during LHC Run 2 at a 13 TeV centre-of-mass energy, the theory and experimental particle physics communities have started a meticulous exploration of the potential for precision measurements of its properties. This includes studies of Higgs boson production and decays processes, the search for rare decays and production modes, high energy observables, and searches for an extended electroweak symmetry breaking sector. This report summarises the potential reach and opportunities in Higgs physics during the High Luminosity phase of the LHC, with an expected dataset of pp collisions at 14 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 3 ab$^{-1}$. These studies are performed in light of the most recent analyses from LHC collaborations and the latest theoretical developments. The potential of an LHC upgrade, colliding protons at a centre-of-mass energy of 27 TeV and producing a dataset corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 15 ab$^{-1}$, is also discussed.
The production of pairs of Higgs bosons at hadron colliders provides unique information on the Higgs sector and on the mechanism underlying electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB). Most studies have concentrated on the gluon fusion production mode which has the largest cross section. However, despite its small production rate, the vector-boson fusion channel can also be relevant since even small modifications of the Higgs couplings to vector bosons induce a striking increase of the cross section as a function of the invariant mass of the Higgs boson pair. In this work, we exploit this unique signature to propose a strategy to extract the $hhVV$ quartic coupling and provide model-independent constraints on theories where EWSB is driven by new strong interactions. We take advantage of the higher signal yield of the $bbar b bbar b$ final state and make extensive use of jet substructure techniques to reconstruct signal events with a boosted topology, characteristic of large partonic energies, where each Higgs boson decays to a single collimated jet . Our results demonstrate that the $hhVV$ coupling can be measured with 45% (20%) precision at the LHC for $mathcal{L}=$ 300 (3000) fb$^{-1}$, while a 1% precision can be achieved at a 100 TeV collider.
Despite the discovery of the Higgs boson decay in five separate channels many parameters of the Higgs boson remain largely unconstrained. In this paper, we present a new approach to constraining the Higgs total width by requiring the Higgs to be resolved as a single high p$_T$ jet and measuring the inclusive Higgs boson cross section. To measure the inclusive Higgs boson cross section, we rely on new approaches from machine learning and a modified jet reconstruction. This approach is found to be complementary to the existing off-shell width measurement and, with the full HL-LHC luminosity, is capable of yielding similar sensitivity to the off-shell projections. We outline the theoretical and experimental limitations and present a path towards making this approach a truly model-independent measurement of the Higgs boson total width.
Precision measurements of top-associated Higgs production are an important ingredient to unravel the $mathcal{CP}$ nature of the Higgs boson. In this work, we constraint the $mathcal{CP}$ nature of the top-Yukawa coupling taking into account all relevant inclusive and differential Higgs boson measurements. Based upon this fit, we show that it is crucial to disentangle single- and di-top-associated Higgs production for tightening indirect constraints on a $mathcal{CP}$-odd top-Yukawa coupling in the future. In this context, we propose an analysis strategy for measuring $tH$ production at the HL-LHC without relying on assumptions about the Higgs $mathcal{CP}$ character.