1,534 research outputs found
The Road Towards the ILC: Higgs, Top/QCD, Loops
The International Linear e+e- Collider (ILC) could go into operation in the
second half of the upcoming decade. Experimental analyses and theory
calculations for the physics at the ILC are currently performed. We review
recent progress, as presented at the LCWS06 in Bangalore, India, in the fields
of Higgs boson physics and top/QCD. Also the area of loop calculations,
necessary to achieve the required theory precision, is included.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure. Plenary talk given at the LCWS06 March 2006,
Bangalore, India. Top part slightly enlarged, references adde
Revealing the electroweak properties of a new scalar resonance
One or more new heavy resonances may be discovered in experiments at the CERN
Large Hadron Collider. In order to determine if such a resonance is the
long-awaited Higgs boson, it is essential to pin down its spin, CP, and
electroweak quantum numbers. Here we describe how to determine what role a
newly-discovered neutral CP-even scalar plays in electroweak symmetry breaking,
by measuring its relative decay rates into pairs of electroweak vector bosons:
WW, ZZ, \gamma\gamma, and Z\gamma. With the data-driven assumption that
electroweak symmetry breaking respects a remnant custodial symmetry, we perform
a general analysis with operators up to dimension five. Remarkably, only three
pure cases and one nontrivial mixed case need to be disambiguated, which can
always be done if all four decay modes to electroweak vector bosons can be
observed or constrained. We exhibit interesting special cases of Higgs
look-alikes with nonstandard decay patterns, including a very suppressed
branching to WW or very enhanced branchings to \gamma\gamma and Z\gamma. Even
if two vector boson branching fractions conform to Standard Model expectations
for a Higgs doublet, measurements of the other two decay modes could unmask a
Higgs imposter.Comment: 23 pages, two figures; v2: minor revision and version to appear in
JHE
Measuring the Higgs Sector
If we find a light Higgs boson at the LHC, there should be many observable
channels which we can exploit to measure the relevant parameters in the Higgs
sector. We use the SFitter framework to map these measurements on the parameter
space of a general weak-scale effective theory with a light Higgs state of mass
120 GeV. Our analysis benefits from the parameter determination tools and the
error treatment used in new--physics searches, to study individual parameters
and their error bars as well as parameter correlations.Comment: 45 pages, Journal version with comments from refere
Model-Independent Bounds on a Light Higgs
We present up-to-date constraints on a generic Higgs parameter space. An
accurate assessment of these exclusions must take into account statistical, and
potentially signal, fluctuations in the data currently taken at the LHC. For
this, we have constructed a straightforward statistical method for making full
use of the data that is publicly available. We show that, using the expected
and observed exclusions which are quoted for each search channel, we can fully
reconstruct likelihood profiles under very reasonable and simple assumptions.
Even working with this somewhat limited information, we show that our method is
sufficiently accurate to warrant its study and advocate its use over more naive
prescriptions. Using this method, we can begin to narrow in on the remaining
viable parameter space for a Higgs-like scalar state, and to ascertain the
nature of any hints of new physics---Higgs or otherwise---appearing in the
data.Comment: 32 pages, 10 figures; v3: correction made to basis of four-derivative
operators in the effective Lagrangian, references adde
Theories for the Fermi Scale
I give a short review of our present understanding of new theories of the
electroweak scale, with emphasis on recent progress. Plenary talk at the EPS
2007 Conference at Manchester.Comment: 14 pages, EPS 2007 Conferenc
Standard Model Higgs-Boson Branching Ratios with Uncertainties
We present an update of the branching ratios for Higgs-boson decays in the
Standard Model. We list results for all relevant branching ratios together with
corresponding uncertainties resulting from input parameters and missing
higher-order corrections. As sources of parametric uncertainties we include the
masses of the charm, bottom, and top quarks as well as the QCD coupling
constant. We compare our results with other predictions in the literature.Comment: 32 pages, 4 figures, contribution to LHC Higgs Cross Section Working
Group https://twiki.cern.ch/twiki/bin/view/LHCPhysics/CrossSections,
theoretical uncertainties for H->\mu\mu{} added, version to appear in
European Physical Journal
Anomalous Couplings in Double Higgs Production
The process of gluon-initiated double Higgs production is sensitive to
non-linear interactions of the Higgs boson. In the context of the Standard
Model, studies of this process focused on the extraction of the Higgs trilinear
coupling. In a general parametrization of New Physics effects, however, an even
more interesting interaction that can be tested through this channel is the
(ttbar hh) coupling. This interaction vanishes in the Standard Model and is a
genuine signature of theories in which the Higgs boson emerges from a
strongly-interacting sector. In this paper we perform a model-independent
estimate of the LHC potential to detect anomalous Higgs couplings in
gluon-fusion double Higgs production. We find that while the sensitivity to the
trilinear is poor, the perspectives of measuring the new (ttbar hh) coupling
are rather promising.Comment: 22 pages, 9 figures. v2: plots of Figs.8 and 9 redone to include
experimental uncertainty on the Higgs couplings, references adde
Electroweak corrections to W-boson pair production at the LHC
Vector-boson pair production ranks among the most important Standard-Model
benchmark processes at the LHC, not only in view of on-going Higgs analyses.
These processes may also help to gain a deeper understanding of the electroweak
interaction in general, and to test the validity of the Standard Model at
highest energies. In this work, the first calculation of the full one-loop
electroweak corrections to on-shell W-boson pair production at hadron colliders
is presented. We discuss the impact of the corrections on the total cross
section as well as on relevant differential distributions. We observe that
corrections due to photon-induced channels can be amazingly large at energies
accessible at the LHC, while radiation of additional massive vector bosons does
not influence the results significantly.Comment: 29 pages, 15 figures, 4 tables; some references and comments on
\gamma\gamma -> WW added; matches version published in JHE
NLO Higgs boson production via vector-boson fusion matched with shower in POWHEG
We present a next-to-leading order calculation of Higgs boson production in
vector-boson fusion processes interfaced to shower Monte Carlo programs,
implemented according to the POWHEG method.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figures. A few references and a new figure adde
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