Resonant di-Higgs boson production in the bb¯WW Channel: Probing the electroweak phase transition at the LHC

Huang, T.; No, J.M.; Pernié, L.; Ramsey-Musolf, M.; Safonov, A.; Spannowsky, M.; Winslow, P.

Abstract

We analyze the prospects for resonant di-Higgs production searches at the LHC in the bb¯W+W− (W+→ℓ+νℓ, W−→ℓ−ν¯ℓ) channel, as a probe of the nature of the electroweak phase transition in Higgs portal extensions of the Standard Model. In order to maximize the sensitivity in this final state, we develop a new algorithm for the reconstruction of the bb¯W+W− invariant mass in the presence of neutrinos from the W decays, building from a technique developed for the reconstruction of resonances decaying to τ+τ− pairs. We show that resonant di-Higgs production in the bb¯W+W− channel could be a competitive probe of the electroweak phase transition already with the datasets to be collected by the CMS and ATLAS experiments in Run-2 of the LHC. The increase in sensitivity with larger amounts of data accumulated during the High Luminosity LHC phase can be sufficient to enable a potential discovery of the resonant di-Higgs production in this channel.

Citation

Huang, T., No, J., Pernié, L., Ramsey-Musolf, M., Safonov, A., Spannowsky, M., & Winslow, P. (2017). Resonant di-Higgs boson production in the bb¯WW Channel: Probing the electroweak phase transition at the LHC. Physical Review D, 96(3), Article 035007. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.96.035007

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 5, 2017
• Online Publication Date: Aug 11, 2017
• Publication Date: Aug 11, 2017
• Deposit Date: Feb 22, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 30, 2017
• Journal: Physical Review D
• Print ISSN: 2470-0010
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0029
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 96
• Issue: 3
• Article Number: 035007
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.96.035007
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1364568
• Related Public URLs: https://arxiv.org/abs/1701.04442