Unravelling the non-standard top and Higgs couplings in associated top-Higgs production at the High-luminosity LHC

Abstract

We study the sensitivities of non-standard top and Higgs couplings in the pp→ th j process at the 14 TeV high-luminosity run of Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC). We calculate top polarization and construct various lab-frame observables to study their sensitivities on anomalous couplings at HL-LHC. Both anomalous Wtb and hVV couplings contribute in the production process. However, only the former contributes in top decay and only the latter takes part in Higgs decay. We study this interesting interplay of couplings in the production and decay observables. In production, these couplings significantly affect the top polarization. As a measure of top polarization, we look at decay-lepton angular distributions in the laboratory frame and study the effect of anomalous couplings on these distributions. We construct certain asymmetries to study the sensitivity of these distributions to top quark couplings. In particular, real and imaginary parts of an hVV coupling and real part of a Wtb coupling f2R significantly alter the top polarization and, in turn, affect the decay-lepton distributions in laboratory frame.