Leptoquark-assisted singlet-mediated di-Higgs production at the LHC

Abstract

At the LHC, the gluon-initiated processes are considered to be the primary source of di-Higgs production. However, in the presence of a new resonance, the light-quark initiated processes can also contribute significantly. In this letter, we look at the di-Higgs production mediated by a new singlet scalar. The singlet is produced in both quark-antiquark and gluon fusion processes through loops involving a scalar leptoquark and right-handed neutrinos. With benchmark parameters inspired from the recent resonant di-Higgs searches by the ATLAS collaboration, we examine the prospects of such a resonance in the TeV-range at the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) in the bb¯τ+τ− mode with a multivariate analysis. We obtain the 5σ and 2σ contours and find that a significant part of the parameter space is within the reach of the HL-LHC.