No Arabic abstract
We summarize the possible processes which may be used to search for a Higgs boson, of mass in the range 114-130 GeV, at the LHC. We discuss, in detail, two processes with rapidity gaps: exclusive Higgs production with tagged outgoing protons and production by Weak Boson Fusion, in each case taking H -> bbbar as the signal. We make an extensive study of all possible bbbar backgrounds, and discuss the relevant experimental issues. We emphasize the special features of these signals, and of their background processes, and show that they could play an important role in identifying a light Higgs boson at the LHC.
We study the Higgs boson $(h)$ decay to two light jets at the 14 TeV High-Luminosity-LHC (HL-LHC), where a light jet ($j$) represents any non-flavor tagged jet from the observational point of view. The decay mode $hto gg$ is chosen as the benchmark since it is the dominant channel in the Standard Model (SM), but the bound obtained is also applicable to the light quarks $(j=u,d,s)$. We estimate the achievable bounds on the decay branching fractions through the associated production $Vh (V=W^pm,Z)$. Events of the Higgs boson decaying into heavy (tagged) or light (un-tagged) jets are correlatively analyzed. We find that with 3000 fb$^{-1}$ data at the HL-LHC, we should expect approximately $1sigma$ statistical significance on the SM $Vh(gg)$ signal in this channel. This corresponds to a reachable upper bound ${rm BR}(hto jj) leq 4~ {rm BR}^{SM}(hto gg)$ at $95%$ confidence level. A consistency fit also leads to an upper bound ${rm BR}(hto cc) < 15~ {rm BR}^{SM}(hto cc)$ at $95%$ confidence level. The estimated bound may be further strengthened by adopting multiple variable analyses, or adding other production channels.
We analyse the phenomenological implications of a light Higgs boson, $h$, within the CP-conserving 2-Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM) Type-I, for the detection prospects of the charged $H^pm$ state at Run II of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), assuming $sqrt{s}=13$ TeV as energy and ${cal O}(100~{rm fb}^{-1})$ as luminosity. When sufficiently light, this $h$ state can open up the bosonic decay channel $H^pm to W^{pm(*)}h$, which may have a branching ratio significantly exceeding those of the $H^pm to tau u$ and $H^pm to cs$ channels. We perform a broad scan of the 2HDM Type-I parameter space, assuming the heavier of the two CP-even Higgs bosons, $H$, to be the observed SM-like state with a mass near 125 GeV. Through these scans we highlight regions in which $m_{H^pm} < m_t +m_b$ that are still consistent with the most recent limits from experimental searches. We find in these regions that, when the $H^pm to W^{pm(*)}h$ decay mode is the dominant one, the $h$ can be highly fermiophobic, with a considerably large decay rate in the $gammagamma$ channel. This can result in the total cross section of the $sigma(ppto H^pm h to W^{pm(*)} + 4gamma)$ process reaching up to ${cal O}(100~{rm fb})$. We therefore investigate the possibility of observing this spectacular signal at the LHC Run II.
At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), both the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations have been searching for light charged Higgs bosons via top (anti)quark production and decays channels, like $ppto t bar{t}$ with one top (anti)quark decaying into a charged Higgs boson and a $b$ (anti)quark, when the decay is kinematically open (i.e., when $m_{H^pm}lesssim m_t$). In this paper, we propose new searches at the LHC involving light charged Higgs bosons via their pair production channels like $ppto H^pm h/A$ and $ppto H^+ H^-$ in the 2-Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM) Type-I and -X scenarios. By focusing on the case where the heavy $H$ state plays the role of the Standard Model (SM)-like Higgs boson with a mass near 125 GeV, we study the aforementioned Higgs boson pair production channels and investigate their bosonic decays, such as $H^pm to W^{pm } h$ and/or $H^pm to W^{pm } A$. We demonstrate that for a light charged Higgs boson state, with $m_{H^pm}lesssim m_t$, at the LHC, such di-Higgs production and decay channels can give rise to signatures with event rates much larger than those emerging from $ppto tbar{t}to tbar{b} H^-$ + c.c. We specifically study $h/Ato bbar b$ and $tau^+tau^-$ decays. We, therefore, claim that the discussed combination of new production and decay modes can result in an alternative discovery channel for charged Higgs bosons lighter than the top (anti)quark at the LHC within the above two 2HDM Types. Finally, in order to motivate experimentalists in ATLAS and CMS to search for such signatures, we propose 16 Benchmark Points (BPs) which are compatible with both theoretical and experimental constraints.
In the next-to minimal supersymmetric standard model (NMSSM) one additional singlet-like Higgs boson with small couplings to standard model (SM) particles is introduced. Although the mass can be well below the discovered 125 GeV Higgs boson mass its small couplings may make a discovery at the LHC difficult. We use a novel scanning technique to efficiently scan the whole parameter space and determine the range of cross sections and branching ratios for the light singlet-like Higgs boson below 125 GeV. This allows to determine the perspectives for the future discovery potential at the LHC. Specific LHC benchmark points are selected representing the salient NMSSM features.
We review the most relevant LHC searches at $sqrt{s}$ = 8 TeV looking for low mass bosons arising from exotic decay of the Standard Model Higgs and highlighting their impact on both supersymmetric and not supersymmetric Beyond the Standard Model scenarios.