Towards a measurement of the two-photon decay width of the Standard Model Higgs boson at a Photon Collider

A study of the measurement of the two photon decay width times the branching ratio of the Standard Model Higgs boson with a mass of 120 GeV in photon–photon collisions is presented, assuming a γ γ integrated luminosity of 80 fb⁻¹ in the high energy part of the spectrum. The analysis is based on the reconstruction of the Higgs events produced in the γ γ→H process, followed by the decay of the Higgs into a pair. A statistical error of the measurement of the two-photon width, Γ(H→γ γ), times the branching ratio of the Higgs boson, BR is found to be 2.1% for one year of data taking.     

LEP Higgs boson searches beyond the standard model and minimum supersymmetric standard model

Ever since the center-of-mass energy was increased in 1995 above the Zℴ resonance, the four LEP experiments (ALEPH, DELPHI, OPAL and L3) have renewed their effort to search for the Higgs boson. Data taking ended in the year 2000 with about 130 pb⁻¹ of data collected per experiment above 206 GeV ine ⁺ e ⁻¹ collisions but the data analysis is still very active. Most recently, the wealth of theoretical models and predictions has stimulated new analyses and model interpretations which go beyond the standard model and minimal supersymmetric standard model. These include the searches for charged Higgs bosons, models with two Higgs field doublets, searches for ‘fermiophobic’ Higgs decay, invisible Higgs boson decays, decay-mode independent searches, and limits on Yukawa and anomalous Higgs couplings. I review the searches done by the four LEP experiments and present the LEP combined results when they exist.     

Observability of light charged Higgs decay to muon in top quark pair events at LHC

In this paper the charged Higgs signal through the decay to a pair of muon and neutrino (H ^±→μν) is analyzed. The analysis attempts to estimate the amount of muonic signal of the charged Higgs at LHC at a center of mass energy of 14 TeV. The signal process is the top quark pair production with one of the top quarks decaying to a charged Higgs (non SM anomalous top decay) and the other decaying to a W boson which is assumed to decay hadronically to two light jets. Due to the small branching ratio of charged Higgs decay to muon, results are quoted for data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 300 fb⁻¹ which is expected to be collected at the LHC high luminosity regime. It is shown that a signal significance close to 5σ down to below 1σ is achievable for a charged Higgs mass in the range 80 GeV<m(H ^±)<150 GeV taking the top quark pair production with both top quarks decaying to W bosons as the main irreducible background.     

Search for invisibly decaying Higgs bosons with large decay width using the OPAL detector at LEP

This paper describes a topological search for an invisibly decaying Higgs boson, H, produced via the Bjorken process (e⁺e^-→HZ). The analysis is based on data recorded using the OPAL detector at LEP at centre-of-mass energies from 183 to 209 GeV corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 629 pb^-1. In the analysis only hadronic decays of the Z boson are considered. A scan over Higgs boson masses from 1 to 120 GeV and decay widths from 1 to 3000 GeV revealed no indication for a signal in the data. From a likelihood ratio of expected signal and standard model background we determine upper limits on cross-section times branching ratio to an invisible final state. For moderate Higgs boson decay widths, these range from about 0.07 pb (M_H=60 GeV) to 0.57 pb (M_H=114 GeV). For decay widths above 200 GeV the upper limits are of the order of 0.15 pb. The results can be interpreted in general scenarios predicting a large invisible decay width of the Higgs boson. As an example we interpret the results in the so-called stealthy Higgs scenario. The limits from this analysis exclude a large part of the parameter range of this scenario experimentally accessible at LEP 2.     

Branching Fraction Measurements of the SM Higgs with a Mass of 160 GeV at Future Linear e + e − Colliders

Assuming an integrated luminosity of 500 fb^–1 and a center-of-mass energy of 350 GeV, we examine the prospects for measuring branching fractions of a Standard Model-like Higgs boson with a mass of 160 GeV at the future linear e⁺e^–collider TESLA when the Higgs boson is produced via the Higgsstrahlung mechanism, e⁺e^– HZ. The Higgs boson mass chosen close to the W pair threshold covers a mass regime with complicated background structures. We study in detail including some detector responds the precisions achievable for the branching fractions of the Higgs boson into WW^(*), ZZ^* and , whereas the measurement of BF(H ) remains a great challenge. Expectations for the total Higgs width are discussed using either the BF(Z ZZ^*) measurement of this study and the expected error for the inclusive Higgsstrahlung cross section or in addition the precise cross section expected for the weak boson fusion process, e⁺e^– v H, or W,Z-universality.     

Pair production of charged Higgs bosons in the left–right twin Higgs model at the ILC and LHC

The left–right twin Higgs (LRTH) model predicts the existence of a pair of charged Higgs bosons φ^±. In this paper, we study the production of the charged Higgs boson pair φ^± at the international linear collider (ILC) and the CERN large hadron collider (LHC). The numerical results show that the production rates are at the level of several tens fb at the ILC, and the process e⁺e^-→φ⁺φ^- can produce adequately distinct multi-jet final states. We also discuss the charged Higgs boson pair production via the process qq̄→φ⁺φ^- at the LHC and estimate in this case the production rates. We find that, as long as the charged Higgs bosons are not too heavy, they can be abundantly produced at the LHC. The possible signatures of these new particles might be detected at the ILC and LHC experiments. PACS 12.60.Fr; 14.80.Mz; 14.65.Ha; 12.15.Lk     

Search for the standard model Higgs boson at the LEP2 collider near

During 1997 the ALEPH experiment at LEP gathered 57 pb⁻¹ of data at centre-of-mass energies near 183 GeV. These data are used to look for possible signals from the production of the Standard Model Higgs boson in the reaction e⁺e⁻→HZ. No evidence of a signal is found in the data; seven events are selected, in agreement with the expectation of 7.2 events from background processes. This observation results in an improved lower limit on the mass of the Higgs boson: m_H>87.9 GeV/c² at 95% confidence level.     

The ATLAS discovery potential for a heavy charged Higgs boson in gg → tbH± with H± → tb

The European Physical Journal C - The feasibility of detecting a heavy charged Higgs boson, mH±&gt;m t +m b , decaying in the H±→ tb channel is studied with the fast simulation...     

Search for pair production of heavy objects in 4-jet events at} $sqrt{s}=130-136 {⤪ GeV}$ DELPHI Collaboration

Results are presented of a search for pair production of heavy objects decaying into four hadronic jets, as expected for example from associated or pair production of MSSM Higgs bosons, hA or H⁺H^?, using a data sample of 5.9pb^?1 of e⁺e^? collisions at $sqrt{s}=130-136 {? GeV}$ collected with the DELPHI detector at LEP in November 1995. The data and expectations from standard processes agree after four-jet selections. An analysis based on b-tagging finds no hA candidate with high mass. A study optimized to search for H⁺H^?events with mass in the 40–50 GeV/c² range also finds no candidate. Finally a comparison is made with a recent ALEPH analysis which found an excess of four-jet events with high multiplicity and high mass. Such a signal is not observed in the DELPHI data, although a slight excess in the mass region around 105 GeV/c² is seen.     

Neutral Higgs bosons in the standard model and in the minimal supersymmetric model: Searches at LEP

During the twelve years of operation of thee ⁺ e ⁻ collider LEP, the associated collaborations, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, have extensively searched for Higgs bosons over a broad range of masses. We present the final results from LEP for the standard model Higgs boson which are obtained from a statistical combination of the data from the four experiments. We also present preliminary combined results for neutral Higgs bosons in the minimal supersymmetric model (MSSM) where the Higgs sector is assumed to be CP invariant. Finally, we discuss an alternative MSSM scenario including CP violation in the Higgs sector.     

Prospects for the measurement of the structure of the coupling of a Higgs boson to weak gauge bosons in weak boson fusion with the ATLAS detector

The prospects for the measurement of the tensor structure of the vertex between a standard model Higgs boson and two weak gauge bosons using the distribution of the azimuthal angles between the two tagging jets in the weak boson fusion channel are studied in a Monte Carlo analysis using the fast simulation of the ATLAS detector. The decay channels H→τ⁺τ^-→ll+4ν, H→τ⁺τ^-→lh+3ν at m_H=120 GeV and H→W⁺W^-→llνν at m_H=160 GeV are used in the analysis. For a standard model Higgs boson it is found that purely anomalous couplings are expected to be excluded at a confidence level corresponding to 2σ or more at m_H=120 GeV and more than 5σ at m_H=160 GeV from 30 fb^-1 of data. With a value of 1 roughly reproducing the standard model cross section for a purely anomalous coupling, the standard deviation in a measurement of a contribution of a CP even anomalous coupling in addition to the standard model coupling is estimated to be 0.20 at m_H=120 GeV and 0.09 at m_H=160 GeV.     

Effective-Lagrangian approach to γγ→WW II: Results and comparison with e+e-→WW

We present a study of anomalous electroweak gauge-boson couplings that can be measured in e⁺e^- and γγ collisions at a future linear collider like ILC. We consider the gauge-boson sector of a locally SU(2)×U(1) invariant effective Lagrangian with ten dimension-six operators added to the Lagrangian of the standard model. These operators induce anomalous three-gauge-boson and four-gauge-boson couplings and an anomalous γγH coupling. We calculate the reachable sensitivity for the measurement of the anomalous couplings in γγ→WW. We compare these results with the reachable precision in the reaction e⁺e^-→WW on the one hand and with the bounds that one can obtain from high-precision observables in Z decays on the other hand. We show that one needs both the e⁺e^- and the γγ modes at an ILC to constrain the largest possible number of anomalous couplings and that the Giga-Z mode offers the best sensitivity for certain anomalous couplings.     

On MSSM charged Higgs-boson production in association with an electroweak W boson at electron–positron colliders

We present a calculation of the cross section for the process e⁺e^-→W^±H^∓ in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) and the two Higgs doublet model (THDM). We study the basic features of the MSSM prediction for some distinctive parameter scenarios. We find large effects from virtual third-generation squarks for scenarios with large mixing, which can lead to a cross section vastly different from a THDM with identical Higgs sector parameters. We investigate this interesting behaviour in more detail by thoroughly scanning the MSSM parameter space for regions of large cross section. For a charged Higgs boson too heavy to be pair produced at a future high-energy electron–positron collider it turns out that a large MSSM cross section with a good chance of observation is linked to a squark mass scale below 600 GeV and a considerable amount of mixing in either the stop and sbottom sector.     

Associated production of Higgs bosons with Z bosons by charged leptons in strong external fields

The probabilities of the associated production of a Higgs boson with a Z boson by a charged lepton in the field of a plane electromagnetic wave of arbitrary intensity and in a constant crossed field are obtained. The behavior of the cross section of the process as a function of the particle energies and the external field intensity is investigated for various values of the Higgs boson mass. It is shown that there is a logarithmic increase in the photoproduction cross section at superhigh energies up to a value significantly exceeding the cross section of the reaction e ⁺+e ⁻→Z+H, which is presently regarded as the most probable channel for the production of Higgs bosons. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 113, 1979–1990 (June 1998)     

Higgs boson as a dilaton

We study possible phenomenological consequences of the recently proposed new approach to the Weinberg-Salam model. The electroweak theory is considered as a gravity and the Higgs particle is interpreted in it as a dilaton, without the usual potential of interaction in the Higgs sector. We have taken as a test the process of photon pair production, e ⁺ + e ⁻ → Z + γ + γ. In the framework of new formulation this reaction is mediated in the lowest order by the dilaton. The cross section is found to be rather small.     

Search for low mass Higgs bosons produced inZ0 decays

A search for light Higgs bosons was performed using the data sample collected in 1990 by the DELPHI detector at LEP, at centre of mass energies between 88.2 and 94.2 GeV. Using the process e⁺e^–H ⁰+Z ^0*,Z ^0*ff, it is possible to exclude the existence of the standard model Higgs particle with a mass between 0 and 210 MeV/c² at the 99% confidence level. Extending this analysis to the minimal supersymmetric standard model restricts the lightest neutral Higgs boson to masses above 28 GeV/c² irrespective of the value of the mixing angle.     

FCNC top quark decays in extra dimensions

The flavor changing neutral top quark decay t→cX is computed, where X is a neutral standard model particle, in an extended model with a single extra dimension. The cases for the photon, X=γ, and a standard model Higgs boson, X=H, are analyzed in detail in a non-linear R_ξ gauge. We find that the branching ratios can be enhanced by the dynamics originating in the extra dimension. In the limit where 1/R≫m_t, we have found Br(t→cγ)≃10^-10 for 1/R = 0.5 TeV. For the decay t→cH, we have found Br(t→cH)≃10^-10 for a low Higgs mass value. The branching ratios go to zero when 1/R→∞.     

Measurement of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling at a linear e<Superscript>+</Superscript>e<Superscript>-</Superscript> collider

Understanding the mechanism of electroweak symmetry breaking and the origin of boson and fermion masses is among the most pressing questions raised in contemporary particle physics. If these issues involve one (several) Higgs boson(s), a precise measurement of all its (their) properties will be of prime importance. Among those, the Higgs coupling to matter fermions (the Yukawa coupling). At a linear collider, the process e⁺e^-→tt̄H will allow a direct measurement of the top-Higgs Yukawa coupling. We present a realistic feasibility study of the measurement in the context of the TESLA collider. Four channels are studied and the analysis is repeated for several Higgs mass values within the range 120–200 GeV/c ². PACS 13.66.Jn; 14.65.Ha; 14.80.Bn     

On radiative QCD backgrounds to exclusive H→bb̄ production at the LHC and a photon collider

Central exclusive Higgs boson production, pp→p⊕H⊕p, at the LHC and s-channel resonant Higgs production in the photon-collider option of the ILC can provide a very important contribution to the comprehensive study of the Higgs sector. Especially attractive is the bb̄ Higgs decay mode, which for certain MSSM scenarios may become the discovery channel in exclusive Higgs production at the LHC and the photon collider (PC). Strongly suppressed and controllable backgrounds is an obvious requirement for the success of these exclusive measurements. One of the main sources of background comes from additional gluon radiation which leads to a three-jet bb̄g final state. We perform an explicit calculation of the subprocesses gg→qq̄g and γγ→qq̄g, where the incoming particles are required to be in a J_z=0 state and the two gluons form a colour singlet, and investigate the salient properties of these potentially important background processes.     

Recent results from LEP

Recent results from the LEP collider at CERN are presented: on the identification of e ⁺ e ⁻ → W ⁺ W ⁻ and the determination of the W mass and width and limits on its anomalous couplings; the search for the Standard Model and non-minimal Higgs; search for SUSY and other new particles. Fits to all electroweak data leading to predictions of the Higgs mass within the Standard Model are presented.