Note on Higgs Decay into Two Photons H → γγ

Abstract

The Higgs decay H → γγ due to the virtual W-loop effect is revisited in the unitary gauge by using the symmetry-preserving and divergent-behavior-preserving loop regularization method, which is realized in the four-dimensional space-time without changing original theory. Though the one-loop amplitude of H → γγ is finite as the Higgs boson in the standard model has no direct interaction with the massless photons at tree level, it involves both tensor-type and scalar-type divergent integrals which can in general destroy the gauge invariance without imposing a proper regularization scheme to make them well-defined. As the loop regularization scheme can ensure the consistency conditions between the regularized tensor-type and scalar-type divergent irreducible loop integrals to preserve gauge invariance, we explicitly show the absence of decoupling in the limit MW/MH → 0 and obtain a result agreeing exactly with the earlier one in the literature. We then clarify the discrepancy of the earlier result from the recent one obtained by R. Gastmans, S.L. Wu and T.T. Wu. The advantage of calculation in the unitary gauge becomes manifest in that the non-decoupling arises from the longitudinal contribution of the W gauge boson.