Measurement of the Higgs Boson Transverse Momentum and its Sensitivity to New Physics Beyond the Standard Model

Abstract

When simulations based on the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics are compared to actual data obtained by the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is seen that there is an excess in the transverse momentum crosssectional data above what is predicted by the simulations. In order to make predictions for higher centre of mass energies at the LHC, simulations of processes resulting in the production of Higgs bosons were done for different centre of mass energies. At the energy scales seen at the LHC, the SM predicts that the main production mechanism for Higgs bosons is gluon fusion. The production of a Higgs boson in this manner must be accompanied by the production of one or more other particles in order for the Higgs boson to acquire transverse momentum (PT). This is because there is no transvers momentum coming into the collision and so conservation of momentum requires two or more particles with opposite PT to be produced in order for them to have non-zero PT. If a heavy scalar boson is produced in this interaction which decays into a Higgs boson and some other particle, the emission of this other particle would give the Higgs boson extra transverse momentum above what is predicted by the SM.