Higgs Diphoton Rate Research Articles

A light Higgs at the LHC and the B-anomalies

After the Higgs discovery, the LHC has been looking for new resonances, decaying into pairs of Standard Model (SM) particles. Recently, the CMS experimen observed an excess in the di-photon channel, with a di-photon invariant mass of about 96 GeV. This mass range is similar to the one of an excess observed in the search for the associated production of Higgs bosons with the Z neutral gauge boson at LEP, with the Higgs bosons decaying to bottom quark pairs. On the other hand, the LHCb experiment observed a discrepancy with respect to the SM expectations of the ratio of the decay of B-mesons to K-mesons and a pair of leptons, {R}_{K^{left(ast right)}}=BRleft(Bto {K}^{left(ast right)}{mu}^{+}{mu}^{-}right)/BRleft(Bto {K}^{left(ast right)}{e}^{+}{e}^{-}right) . This observation provides a hint of the violation of lepton-flavor universality in the charged lepton sector and may be explained by the existence of a vector boson originating form a U{(1)_{L_{mu}}}_{-{L}_{{}_{tau }}} symmetry and heavy quarks that mix with the left-handed down quarks. Since the coupling to heavy quarks could lead to sizable Higgs di-photon rates in the gluon fusion channel, in this article we propose a common origin of these anomalies identifying a Higgs associated with the breakdown of the U{(1)_{L_{mu}}}_{-{L}_{{}_{tau }}} symmetry and at the same time responsible to the quark mixing, with the one observed at the LHC. We also discuss the constraints on the identification of the same Higgs with the one associated with the bottom quark pair excess observed at LEP.

LHC diphoton and Z+photon Higgs signals in the Higgs triplet model with Y = 0

We study the implications of the LHC diphoton and Z+photon Higgs signals on the Higgs triplet model with Y=0. We discuss three different scenarios: (i) the observed boson is the light Higgs boson $h$; (ii) it is the heavy Higgs boson $H$; (iii) the observed signal is from the almost degenerate $h$ and $H$. We find that the inclusive Higgs diphoton rates in the first two scenarios can be enhanced or suppressed compared to the SM value, which can respectively fit the ATLAS and CMS diphoton data within $1\sigma$ range. The inclusive $ZZ^*$ rates are suppressed, which are outside $1\sigma$ range of ATLAS data and within $1\sigma$ range of CMS data. Meanwhile, another CP-even Higgs boson production rate can be suppressed enough not to be observed at the collider. For the third scenario, the Higgs diphoton rate is suppressed, which is outside $1\sigma$ range of ATLAS data, and the $ZZ^*$ rate equals to SM value approximately. In addition, we find that the two rates of $h\to \gamma\gamma$ and $h\to Z\gamma$ have the positive correlations for the three scenarios.

Light staus and enhanced Higgs diphoton rate with non-universal gaugino masses and SO(10) Yukawa unification

Abstract It is shown that substantially enhanced Higgs to diphoton rate induced by light staus with large left-right mixing in MSSM requires at the GUT scale non-universal gaugino masses with bino and/or wino lighter than gluino. The possibility of such enhancement is investigated in MSSM models with arbitrary gaugino masses at the GUT scale with additional restriction of top-bottom-tau Yukawa unification, as predicted by minimal SO(10) GUTs. Many patterns of gaugino masses leading to enhanced Higgs to diphoton rate and the Yukawa unification are identified. Some of these patterns can be accommodated in a well-motivated scenarios such as mirage mediation or SUSY breaking F -terms being a non- singlet of SO(10). Phenomenological implications of a scenario with non-universal gaugino masses generated by a mixture of the singlet F -term and the F -term in a 24-dimensional representation of SU(5) ⊂ SO(10) are studied in detail. Possible non-universalities of other soft terms generated by such F-terms are discussed. The enhancement of Higgs to diphoton rate up to 30% can be obtained in agreement with all phenomenological constraints, including vacuum metastability bounds. The lightest sbottom and pseudoscalar Higgs are within easy reach of the 14 TeV LHC. The LSP can be either bino-like or wino-like. The thermal relic abundance in the former case may be in agreement with the cosmological data thanks to efficient stau coannihilation.

130 GeV gamma ray line and enhanced Higgs di-photon rate from Triplet-Singlet extended MSSM

We propose an economic extension of minimal supersymmetric standard model with a SU(2) singlet and Y=0 triplet, which can explain (i) the 125 GeV Higgs boson without fine tuning, (ii) the 130 GeV $\gamma$-ray line seen at Fermi-LAT, (as well as a second photon line at 114 GeV)(iii) an enhanced Higgs di-photon decay rate seen by ATLAS, while being consistent with dark matter relic density and recent XENON 100 exclusion limits on spin-independent direct detection cross-section. We obtain the required cross-section of $10^{-27}cm^3s^{-1}$ for the 130 GeV $\gamma$-ray flux through the resonant annihilation of dark matter via pseudoscalar triplet Higgs of mass $\sim$260 GeV. The dark matter is predominantly bino-higgsino which has large couplings with photons (through higgsino) and gives correct relic density (through bino). We get the enhanced Higgs diphoton decay rate, $R_{\gamma \gamma}\simeq 1.24$ dominantly contributed by the light chargino-loops, which can account for the reported excess seen in the $h\rightarrow \gamma \gamma$ channel by ATLAS.

Higgs diphoton rate enhancement from supersymmetric physics beyond the MSSM

We show that supersymmetric ``new physics'' beyond the minimal supersymmetric standard model can naturally accommodate a Higgs mass near 126 GeV and enhance the signal rate in the $h\ensuremath{\rightarrow}\ensuremath{\gamma}\ensuremath{\gamma}$ channel, while the signal rates in all the other Higgs decay channels coincide with Standard Model expectations, except possibly the $h\ensuremath{\rightarrow}Z\ensuremath{\gamma}$ channel. The new physics that corrects the relevant Higgs couplings can be captured by two supersymmetric effective operators. We provide a simple example of an underlying model in which these operators are simultaneously generated. The scale of new physics that generates these operators can be around 5 TeV or larger, and outside the reach of the LHC.

Modified Higgs sectors and NLO associated production

Many beyond the Standard Model (BSM) scenarios involve Higgs couplings to additional electroweak fields. It is well established that these new fields may modify Higgs gamma-gamma and gamma-Z decays at one-loop. However, one unexplored aspect of such scenarios is that by electroweak symmetry one should also expect modifications to the Higgs Z-Z coupling at one-loop and, more generally, modifications to Higgs production and decay channels beyond tree-level. In this paper we investigate the full BSM modified electroweak corrections to associated Higgs production at both the LHC and a future lepton collider in two simple SM extensions. From both inclusive and differential NLO associated production cross sections we find BSM-NLO corrections can be as large as O(>10%) when compared to the SM expectation, consistent with other precision electroweak measurements, even in scenarios where modifications to the Higgs diphoton rate are not significant. At the LHC such corrections are comparable to the involved QCD uncertainties. At a lepton collider the Higgs associated production cross section can be measured to high accuracy (O(1%) independent of uncertainties in total width and other couplings), and such a deviation could be easily observed even if the new states remain beyond kinematic reach. This should be compared to the expected accuracy for a model-independent determination of the Higgs diphoton coupling at a lepton collider, which is O(15%). This work demonstrates that precision measurements of the Higgs associated production cross section constitute a powerful probe of modified Higgs sectors and will be valuable for indirectly exploring BSM scenarios.

Electroweak phase transition, Higgs diphoton rate, and new heavy fermions

We show that weak scale vector-like fermions with order one couplings to the Higgs can lead to a novel mechanism for a strongly first-order electroweak phase transition (EWPhT), through their tendency to drive the Higgs quartic coupling negative. These same fermions could also enhance the loop-induced branching fraction of the Higgs into two photons, as suggested by the recent discovery of a ~125 GeV Higgs-like state at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Our results suggest that measurements of the diphoton decay rate of the Higgs and its self coupling, at the LHC or perhaps at a future lepton collider, could probe the EWPhT in the early Universe, with significant implications for the viability of electroweak baryogenesis scenarios.

Higgs diphoton rate and mass enhancement with vectorlike leptons and the scale of supersymmetry

Analysis of contributions from vector-like leptonic supermultiplets to the Higgs diphoton decay rate and to the Higgs boson mass is given. Corrections arising from the exchange of the new leptons and their super-partners, as well as their mirrors are computed analytically and numerically. We also study the correlation between the enhanced Higgs diphoton rate and the Higgs mass corrections. Specifically, we find two branches in the numerical analysis: on the lower branch the diphoton rate enhancement is flat while on the upper branch it has a strong correlation with the Higgs mass enhancement. It is seen that a factor of 1.4-1.8 enhancement of the Higgs diphoton rate on the upper branch can be achieved, and a 4-10 GeV positive correction to the Higgs mass can also be obtained simultaneously. The effect of this extra contribution to the Higgs mass is to release the constraint on weak scale supersymmetry, allowing its scale to be lower than in the theory without extra contributions. The vector-like supermultiplets also have collider implications which can be tested at the LHC and at the ILC.

Dark Matter and enhanced h → γγ rate from vector-like Leptons

In this paper, we study an extension of the standard model with a vector-like generation of leptons. This model provides a viable dark matter candidate and a possibility to enhance the Higgs decay rate into a pair of photons. We evaluate constraints from electroweak precision tests and from vacuum stability, and find that the latter provide an upper limit on the lepton Yukawa couplings. A large enhancement of the Higgs di-photon rate can therefore only be obtained when the mass of the lightest charged lepton is close to the LEP limit. The relic density constraint suggests a co-annihilation scenario with a small mass difference between the lightest charged and neutral leptons, which also weakens the LEP limit on the lightest charged lepton mass and allows for larger Higgs di-photon decay rates. Cross sections for direct detection of the dark matter candidate are calculated, and prospects for detecting the new particles at the LHC are discussed briefly.

Dark side of Higgs diphoton decays and muong−2

We propose that the LHC hints for a Higgs diphoton excess and the muon g-2 (g_mu-2) discrepancy between theory and experiment may be related by vector-like "leptons" charged under both U(1)_Y hypercharge and a "dark" U(1)_d. Quantum loops of such leptons can enhance the Higgs diphoton rate and also generically lead to U(1)_Y - U(1)_d kinetic mixing. The induced coupling of a light U(1)_d gauge boson Z_d to electric charge can naturally explain the measured g_mu-2. We update Z_d mass and coupling constraints based on comparison of the electron g-2 experiment and theory, and find that explaining g_mu-2 while satisfying other constraints requires Z_d to have a mass ~ 20-100 MeV. We predict new Higgs decay channels gamma Z_d and Z_d Z_d, with rates below the diphoton mode but potentially observable. The boosted Z_d -> e+e- in these decays would mimic a promptly converted photon and could provide a fraction of the apparent diphoton excess. More statistics or a closer inspection of extant data may reveal such events.

Composite Higgs sketch

The coupling of a composite Higgs to the standard model fields can deviate substantially from the standard model values. In this case perturbative unitarity might break down before the scale of compositeness is reached, which would suggest that additional composites should lie well below this scale. In this paper we account for the presence of an additional spin 1 custodial triplet of rhos. We examine the implications of requiring perturbative unitarity up to the compositeness scale and find that one has to be close to saturating certain unitarity sum rules involving the Higgs and the rho couplings. Given these restrictions on the parameter space we investigate the main phenomenological consequences of the spin 1 triplet. We find that they can substantially enhance the Higgs di-photon rate at the LHC even with a reduced Higgs coupling to gauge bosons. The main existing LHC bounds arise from di-boson searches, especially in the experimentally clean channel where the charged rhos decay to a W-boson and a Z, which then decay leptonically. We find that a large range of interesting parameter space with 700 GeV < m(rho) < 2 TeV is currently experimentally viable.