Prospects for exotic h→4τ decays in single and di-Higgs boson production at the LHC and future hadron colliders

Adhikary, Amit; Banerjee, Shankha; Barman, Rahool Kumar; Batell, Brian; Bhattacherjee, Biplob; Bose, Camellia; Qian, Zhuoni; Spannowsky, Michael

Abstract

We study the prospects for observing exotic decays of the Standard Model Higgs boson h into light beyond the Standard Model scalars a with mass ma≲mh/2 in the single Higgs and Higgs pair production channels at the high luminosity run of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). Discovery prospects for single Higgs production in the gluon-gluon fusion and vector boson fusion modes with the Higgs boson decaying via the exotic mode h→aa→4τ are analyzed at the HL-LHC. The projected sensitivity for exotic Higgs decays in the nonresonant Higgs pair production channel pp→hh→(h→bb¯)(h→aa→4τ)→2b4τ at the HL-LHC and a future s=100 TeV hadron collider (FCC-hh) are also estimated. Furthermore, we study HL-LHC’s potential reach for the Higgs-strahlung process in the 2b4τ channel, taking into account the contamination from nonresonant Higgs pair production. Finally, the potential reach for resonant Higgs pair production in the 2b4τ channel at the HL-LHC is also explored for several choices of {mH,ma}. Our studies suggest that significant improvements over existing bounds are achievable in several production channels, motivating new dedicated searches for h→aa→4τ at the HL-LHC and future colliders. Published by the American Physical Society 2024

Citation

Adhikary, A., Banerjee, S., Barman, R. K., Batell, B., Bhattacherjee, B., Bose, C., Qian, Z., & Spannowsky, M. (2024). Prospects for exotic h→4τ decays in single and di-Higgs boson production at the LHC and future hadron colliders. Physical Review D, 109(5), Article 055008. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.109.055008

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 6, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Mar 7, 2024
• Publication Date: Mar 7, 2024
• Deposit Date: May 20, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: May 20, 2024
• Journal: Physical Review D
• Print ISSN: 2470-0010
• Electronic ISSN: 2470-0029
• Publisher: American Physical Society
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 109
• Issue: 5
• Article Number: 055008
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevd.109.055008
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2454295