Resolving the tensor structure of the Higgs coupling to Z bosons via Higgs-strahlung

Banerjee, Shankha; Gupta, Rick S.; Reiness, Joey Y.; Spannowsky, Michael

Abstract

We propose differential observables for pp → Zðlþl−Þhðb¯bÞ that can be used to completely determine the tensor structure of the hZZ=hZ¯ff couplings relevant to this process in the dimension-six Standard Model (SM) effective field theory. In particular, we propose a strategy to probe the anomalous hZμνZμν and hZμν ˜Z μν vertices at the percent level.We show that this can be achieved by resurrecting the interference term between the transverse Zh amplitude, which receives contributions from the above couplings, and the dominant SM longitudinal amplitude. These contributions are hard to isolate without knowledge of the analytical amplitude, as they vanish unless the process is studied differentially in three different angular variables at the level of the Z-decay products. By also including the differential distributions with respect to energy variables, we obtain projected bounds for the two other tensor structures of the Higgs coupling to Z bosons.

Citation

Banerjee, S., Gupta, R. S., Reiness, J. Y., & Spannowsky, M. (2019). Resolving the tensor structure of the Higgs coupling to Z bosons via Higgs-strahlung. Physical Review D, 100(11), Article 115004. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.100.115004

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Online Publication Date: Dec 3, 2019
• Publication Date: Dec 1, 2019
• Deposit Date: Dec 4, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 5, 2019
• Journal: Physical Review D
• Print ISSN: 2470-0010
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0029
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 100
• Issue: 11
• Article Number: 115004
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.100.115004