Higgs boson production on protons within the QCD semihard approach

Higgs boson (H) production in proton-proton collisions via the mechanism of gluon-gluon fusion is considered within the QCD semihard (k _T-factorization) approach. Results are presented that were obtained by calculating the total and differential cross sections for inclusive Higgs boson production in \(p\bar p \to H + X\) processes at the Tevatron collider and LHC energies. It is shown that, even in the leading order, the QCD semihard approach makes it possible to study processes involving the associated production of Higgs bosons and one or two hadron jets. Various azimuthal correlations arising in such processes between the transverse momenta of final particles are analyzed. The dependence of all calculated quantities on the choice of unintegrated gluon distribution in the proton is examined.     

Decay channels of the standard Higgs boson

In this paper, we review the results of studies on the decay channels of the standard Higgs boson: H → f + f?, H → Z + f + f?, H → W + f + f?′, H → γ + γ, H → γ + Z and H → g + g. Here ff? or ff?′are the fundamental fermions pair (leptons, quarks). Within the framework of the Standard Model analytical expressions for the partial widths of the indicated decays were obtained and their dependence on the mass of the Higgs boson was studied.     

Higher-order corrections to Higgs boson decays in the MSSM with complex parameters

We discuss Higgs boson decays in the CP-violating MSSM, and examine their phenomenological impact using cross section limits from the LEP Higgs searches. This includes a discussion of the full 1-loop results for the partial decay widths of neutral Higgs bosons into lighter neutral Higgs bosons (h _a →h _b h _c ) and of neutral Higgs bosons into fermions (\(h_{a} \to f \bar{f}\)). In calculating the genuine vertex corrections, we take into account the full spectrum of supersymmetric particles and all complex phases of the supersymmetric parameters. These genuine vertex corrections are supplemented with Higgs propagator corrections incorporating the full 1-loop and the dominant 2-loop contributions, and we illustrate a method of consistently treating diagrams involving mixing with Goldstone and Z bosons. In particular, the genuine vertex corrections to the process h _a →h _b h _c are found to be very large and, where this process is kinematically allowed, can have a significant effect on the regions of the CPX benchmark scenario which can be excluded by the results of the Higgs searches at LEP. However, there remains an unexcluded region of CPX parameter space at a lightest neutral Higgs boson mass of ～45 GeV. In the analysis, we pay particular attention to the conversion between parameters defined in different renormalisation schemes and are therefore able to make a comparison to the results found using renormalisation group improved/effective potential calculations.     

Decays of a neutral particle with zero spin and arbitrary CP parity into two off-mass-shell <Emphasis Type="Italic">Z</Emphasis> bosons

We investigate effects of CP symmetry violation in the decay of a scalar particle X (the Higgs boson) into two off-mass-shell Z bosons both decaying into a fermion–antifermion pair, \(X \to {Z_1}*{Z_2}* \to {f_1}{\bar f_1}{f_2}{\bar f_2}\). The most general form of the amplitude of the transition X → Z₁*Z₂*, wherein the boson X may not have definite CP parity, is considered. The applicability limits of the narrow-Z-width approximation used in obtaining differential widths of the decay under consideration are determined. Various observables connected with the structure of the amplitude of the decay X → Z₁*Z₂* are studied. These observables are analyzed in the Standard Model as well as in models conceding indefinite CP parity of the Higgs boson. An experimental measurement of angular and invariant mass distributions of the decay \(X \to {Z_1}*{Z_2}* \to {f_1}{\bar f_1}{f_2}{\bar f_2}\) at the LHC can give information about the CP properties of the Higgs boson and its interaction with the Z boson.     

Higgs pair production in vector-boson fusion at the LHC and beyond

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 \(b\bar{b} b\bar{b}\) 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 \(\mathscr {L}=300\) (3000) fb\(^{-1}\), while a 1% precision can be achieved at a 100 TeV collider.     

Light Higgs boson in the two-doublet model featuring explicit <Emphasis Type="Italic">CP</Emphasis> violation

The most general form of an effective two-doublet Higgs potential whose parameters are complex-valued and whose CP invariance is violated explicitly in the minimal supersymmetric model caused by Higgs boson interaction with third-generation squarks is considered. Higgs boson states are obtained and their masses are calculated, along with the decay widths of the lightest Higgs boson and the cross section for its production, in the case of substantial mixing between the CP-even states h and H and the CP-odd state A.     

Analysis of the production of Higgs boson pairs at the one-loop level in the minimal supersymmetric standard model

Within theminimal supersymmetric standardmodel, the amplitudes and total cross sections for the processes e ⁺ e ^? → hh, e ⁺ e ^? → hH, e ⁺ e ^? → HH, and e ⁺ e ^? → AA are calculated in the first order of perturbation theory with allowance for a complete set of one-loop diagrams in the m _e → 0 approximation. Analytic expressions are obtained for the quantities under consideration; numerical results are presented in a graphical form. It is shown that the cross section for the process e ⁺ e ^? → hh is larger than those for the other processes (and is on the same order of magnitude as the cross section for the corresponding processes in the Standard Model). In the case of the collision energy equal to √s = 500 GeV, an integrated luminosity in the region ∫ ? ≥ 500 fb^?1, and a longitudinal polarization of the e ⁺ e ? beams used, 520, 320, and 300 production events are possible in the processes e ⁺ e ^? → hh (at M _h = 115 GeV), e ⁺ e ^? → HH, and e ⁺ e ^? → AA (at M _H,A = 120 GeV), respectively. Even at M _H,A ≈ 500 GeV and √s = 1.5 TeV, not less than 200 events for each of the processes can be accumulated. The cross section for the process e ⁺ e ^? → hH is small (about 10^?2 fb), which complicates the detection of the sought signal significantly.     

Pseudoscalar Higgs boson in experiments at <Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript>+</Superscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis><Superscript>−</Superscript> colliders

The potential of experiments at e ⁺ e ^? colliders to search for a signal of a new pseudoscalar Higgs boson and to study its CP properties is analyzed. A new Higgs boson coupling to the b quark and τ lepton, which is parameterized in a model-independent way as m _b /v(a + iγ₅ b), is chosen to be an indicator of its CP nature. We study the e ⁺ e ^? → τ⁺τ^?vv, e ⁺ e ^? → b \(\bar b\)vv, and e ⁺ e ^? → e ⁺ e ^? b \(\bar b\) processes highly sensitive to anomalous Higgs boson couplings due to the dominant contributions from the vector boson fusion processes W*W* → H and Z*Z* → H in the central region. It is shown that the study of polarization of particles in the final state could help to separate the contributions from the scalar and pseudoscalar Higgs bosons. For instance, the consideration of the cascade decays of τ leptons in the e ⁺ e ^? → τ⁺τ^?vv process allows one to determine reliably the CP state of the Higgs boson as well as the value and the sign of the b parameter. As a result of our analysis, we develop a search strategy for a signal of a new pseudoscalar Higgs boson in future experiments at linear e ⁺ e ^? colliders, which will allow one to understand the CP nature of the Higgs boson and set the bounds on its couplings to fermions.     

Simplified parametric scenarios of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model after the discovery of the Higgs boson

Constraints on the parameter space of theMinimal Supersymmetric StandardModel (MSSM) that are imposed by the experimentally observed mass of the Higgs boson (m_H = 125 GeV) upon taking into account radiative corrections within an effective theory for the Higgs sector in the decoupling limit are examined. It is also shown that simplified approximations for radiative corrections in theMSSM Higgs sector could reduce, to a rather high degree of precision, the dimensionality of the multidimensionalMSSM parameter space to two.     

Model-independent analysis of <Emphasis Type="Italic">CP</Emphasis> violation effects in decays of the Higgs boson into a Pair of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">W</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Z</Emphasis> bosons

Effects of CP and T invariance violation are studied in the most general interaction of the Higgs boson with the intermediate vector W ^± and Z bosons. Various angular distributions of the cascade decay Φ → W ⁺ W ^?/ZZ → 4 of fermions in the transversity and helicity systems are calculated, and asymmetries are constructed and evaluated. It is shown that studying the azimuthal angle distribution of the process Φ → ZZ → (e ^? e ⁺)(μ^?μ⁺) in the transversity system is effective for measuring the spatial parity of the Higgs boson.     

Associated Production of the Charged and Neutral Higgs Bosons at the ILC within the Higgs Triplet Model

The Higgs Triplet Model (HTM) predicts the existences of the extra neutral scalars H_i(H_i = H, A) and the charged Higgs bosons (H^± and H^±±). In this work, we make a systematic investigation for the associated production of the singly-charged and neutral Higgs bosons via the processes: \(e^{+}e^{-}\rightarrow H^{+}W^{-}H\) and \(e^{+}e^{-}\rightarrow H^{+}W^{-}A\). From the numerical evaluations for the production cross sections and relevant phenomenological analysis we find that (i) the production rates of these processes can reach the level of several fb with reasonable parameter values; (ii) due to the large production rates and small backgrounds, the signals of these scalars might be detected via these processes at the future ILC experiments; and (iii) for the case of \(m_{H_{i}}> m_{H^{\pm }}> m_{H^{\pm \pm }}\), the cascade decay modes \(H_{i}\to H^{\pm }W^{\mp \ast }\) with \(H^{\pm }\to H^{\pm \pm }W^{\mp \ast }\) would lead to production of H⁺⁺H^?? accompanied by several virtual W bosons. Such characteristic feature can help us to distinguish the HTM from the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model (2HDM) and the Minimal Supersymmetric Model (MSSM).     

Production of charged Higgs bosons at LHC in light-quark annihilation

The CMS potential (at LHC) for seeking the production of a charged Higgs boson is investigated for large values of tan β (between 20 and 50) and a relatively light charged Higgs boson M _H = 200–400 GeV). A simple parametrization is proposed for the

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distributions of signal and background events. The possibility of measuring the mass of the charged Higgs boson and tan β is investigated.

     

Quark see-saw,Higgs mass and vacuum stability

The issue of vacuum stability of standard model (SM) is discussed by embedding it within the TeV scale left–right quark see-saw model. The Higgs potential in this case has only two coupling parameters (λ₁, λ₂) and two mass parameters. There are only two physical neutral Higgs bosons (h,H), the lighter one being identified with the 126 GeV Higgs boson. We explore the range of values for (λ₁, λ₂) for which the vacuum is stable for all values of the Higgs fields till 10¹⁶ GeV. Combining with the further requirement that the scalar self-couplings remain perturbative till 10¹⁶ GeV, we find (i) an upper and lower limit on the second Higgs (H) mass to be within the range: 0.4 ≤ (M_H/v_R) ≤ 0.7, where v_R is the parity breaking scale and (ii) the masses of heavy vector-like top, bottom and τ partner fermions (P₃, N₃,E₃) have an upper bound ≤ v_R. These predictions can be tested at LHC and future higher energy colliders.     

Characterizing Higgs portal dark matter models at the ILC

We study the dark matter (DM) discovery prospect and its spin discrimination in the theoretical framework of gauge invariant and renormalizable Higgs portal DM models at the ILC with \(\sqrt{s} = 500\) GeV. In such models, the DM pair is produced in association with a Z boson. In the case of the singlet scalar DM, the mediator is just the SM Higgs boson, whereas for the fermion or vector DM there is an additional singlet scalar mediator that mixes with the SM Higgs boson, which produces significant observable differences. After careful investigation of the signal and backgrounds both at parton level and at detector level, we find the signal with hadronically decaying Z boson provides a better search sensitivity than the signal with leptonically decaying Z boson. Taking the fermion DM model as a benchmark scenario, when the DM-mediator coupling \(g_\chi \) is relatively small, the DM signals are discoverable only for benchmark points with relatively light scalar mediator \(H_2\). The spin discriminating from scalar DM is always promising, while it is difficult to discriminate from vector DM. As for \(g_\chi \) approaching the perturbative limit, benchmark points with the mediator \(H_2\) in the full mass region of interest are discoverable. The spin discriminating aspects from both the scalar and the fermion DM are quite promising.     

Investigation of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Hττ</Emphasis> and <Emphasis Type="Italic">Hbb</Emphasis> coupling constants for a scalar (pseudoscalar) Higgs boson at a future linear electron-positron collider

The possibility of setting constraints on the couplings of a scalar (pseudoscalar) Higgs boson to the tau lepton and the b quark in the reactions \(e^ + e^ - \to \nu \bar \nu \tau ^ + \tau ^ - \) and \(e^ + e^ - \to \nu \bar \nu b\bar b\) at a future linear electron-positron collider of total energy \(\sqrt s = 500 GeV\) is studied. The admixture of a new hypothetical pseudoscalar state of the Higgs boson in the H ff vertex is parametrized in the form (m _f /ν)(a+iγ₅b). On the basis of an analysis of differential distributions for the processes under study, it is shown that data from the future linear collider TESLA will make it possible to constrain the parameters a and b as ?0.32≤Δa≤0.24 and ?0.73≤b≤0.73 in the case of the reaction \(e^ + e^ - \to \nu \bar \nu \tau ^ + \tau ^ - \) and as ?0.026≤Δa≤0.027 and ?0.23≤b≤0.23 in the case of the reaction \(e^ + e^ - \to \nu \bar \nu b\bar b\). It is emphasized that the contribution of the fusion subprocess WW → H in the channel involving an electron neutrino is of particular importance, since this contribution enhances the sensitivity of data to the parameters being analyzed.     

Contribution of the charged Higgs boson to the production of a <Emphasis Type="Italic">tb</Emphasis> pair in hadron collisions

The contribution of the charged Higgs boson to the production of a tb pair in pp collisions at LHC is investigated. It is shown that, due to H^±-boson exchange, the total yield of tb pairs is modified significantly for small and large values of tan β. At small values of tan β, the production of right-handed t quarks is also expected, however, in contrast to what occurs in the case of only W^±-boson exchange, generating left-handed t quarks exclusively. This fact provides the possibility of separating the H^± and W^± contributions by investigating the angular distributions of products originating from top-quark decay. A detailed simulation of signal and relevant background processes is performed.     

A study of the measurement precision of the Higgs boson decaying into tau pairs at the ILC

We evaluate the measurement precision of the production cross section times the branching ratio of the Higgs boson decaying into tau lepton pairs at the International Linear Collider (ILC). We analyze various final states associated with the main production mechanisms of the Higgs boson, the Higgs-strahlung and WW-fusion processes. The statistical precision of the production cross section times the branching ratio is estimated to be 2.6 and 6.9 % for the Higgs-strahlung and WW-fusion processes, respectively, with the nominal integrated luminosities assumed in the ILC Technical Design Report; the precision improves to 1.0 and 3.4 % with the running scenario including possible luminosity upgrades. The study provides a reference performance of the ILC for future phenomenological analyses.     

Observability of Charged Higgs Contribution in t-channel Single Top at LHC

In this paper, the charged Higgs contribution in t-channel single top production is studied. The production process is a t-channel single top event with charged Higgs exchange. Therefore the signal is similar with Standard Model single top production in terms of the final state. In the first step, the signal cross section is calculated and compared to the other main production processes which are used for a heavy charged Higgs search at LHC, i.e., \(pp\rightarrow t\bar {b}H^{-}\) and \(pp\rightarrow H^{+} \rightarrow t\bar {b}\). In the next step, an event generation and analysis is applied on signal and background events, in order to estimate the signal significance. The signal cross section is typically smaller than the associated production (\(t\bar {b}H^{-}\)) and resonance production (\(t\bar {b}\)) by a factor of 10^?3 and ranges from 10 f b to 1 f b for charged Higgs mass from 200 to 500 GeV at tanβ = 50. Due to the small cross section of signal events and large SM background, the signal significance is small even after a dedicated kinematic analysis and selection of events, however, tanβ values above 120 can be excluded at an integrated luminosity of 3000 f b ^?1.     

Anomalous magnetic moment of the muon in the left-right model

The effect of Higgs bosons on the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon is considered within the model that is based on the SU(2)_L×SU(2)_R×U(1)_B–L gauge group and which involves a bidoublet and two triplets of Higgs fields (left-right model). For the Yukawa coupling constants and the masses of Higgs bosons, the regions are found where the model leads to agreement with experimental results obtained at the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) for the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. In order to explore corollaries from the constraints obtained for the parameters of the Higgs sector, the processes e⁺e^? → μ⁺μ^?, τ⁺τ^? and μ⁺μ^? → μ⁺μ^?, τ⁺τ^? are considered both within the left-right model and within the model involving two Higgs doublets (two-Higgs-doublet model). It is shown that, if the mass of the lightest neutral Higgs boson does indeed lie in the range 3.1–10 GeV, as is inferred from the condition requiring the consistency of the two-Higgs-doublet model with the data of the BNL experiment, this Higgs boson may be observed as a resonance peak at currently operating e⁺e^? colliders (VEPP-4M, CESR, KEKB, PEP-II, and SLC). In order to implement this program, however, it is necessary to reduce considerably the scatter of energy in the e⁺ and e^? beams used, since the decay width of the lightest neutral Higgs boson is extremely small at such mass values. It is demonstrated that, in the case of the left-right model, for which the mass of the lightest neutral Higgs boson is not less than 115 GeV, the resonance peak associated with it may be detected at a muon collider.     

Analysis of th e $$Hb\bar b$$ coupling constant and CP-violation eff ects at th e futur e e+ e− collid er

The \(e^ + e^ - \to b\bar bv\bar v\) process, where υ is an electron, muon, or τ-lepton neutrino, is analyzed in detail for the general form of the coupling constant of a Higgs boson with b quarks, with the (m _b /v)(a+Iγ₅b) parameterization of the \(Hb\bar b\) interaction. This process is shown to be highly sensitive to this coupling constant. Experiments at the future with \(\sqrt s = 500 - GeV\) linear collider will provide limits of 2 and 20% for deviations of the parameters a and b, respectively, from their Standard Model values. Results concerning the \(e^ + e^ - \to b\bar bv\bar v\) process in combination with the independent measurements of the partial width \(\Gamma _{H \to b\bar b}\) can testify to the CP origin of the Higgs sector of the theory.