Detecting the Higgs Bosons of Minimal Supergravity with Muon Pairs

The prospects at the CERN LHC are investigated for the discovery via decays into muon pairs of neutral Higgs bosons in the minimal supergravity model. Promising results are found for the CP-odd pseudoscalar ($A^0$) and the heavier CP-even scalar ($H^0$) Higgs bosons at large $\tan\beta \equiv v_2/v_1$. For \tan\beta \agt 10 and 100 GeV \alt m_A,m_H \alt 550 GeV, the $A^0$ and the $H^0$ masses could be precisely reconstructed from the dimuon invariant mass.Comment: 12 pages, REVTEX, 4 figure

Confirming the LHC Higgs Discovery with WW

We investigate the prospects of observing a neutral Higgs boson decaying into a pair of $W$ bosons (one real and the other virtual), followed by the $W$ decays into $qq' \ell\nu$ or $jj\ell\nu$ at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Assuming that the missing transverse energy comes solely from the neutrino in $W$ decay, we can reconstruct the $W$ masses and then the Higgs mass. At the LHC with a center of mass energy ($\sqrt{s}$) of 8 TeV and an integrated luminosity ($L$) of 25 fb$^{-1}$, we can potentially establish a $6\sigma$ signal. A $5\sigma$ discovery of $H \to WW^* \to jj\ell\nu$ for $\sqrt{s} = 14$ TeV can be achieved with $L =$ 6 fb$^{-1}$. The discovery of $H \to WW$ implies that the recently discovered new boson is a CP-even scalar if its spin is zero. In addition, this channel will provide a good opportunity to study the $HWW$ coupling

Searching for the Higgs Bosons of Minimal Supersymmetry with Muon Pairs and Bottom Quarks

The prospects for the discovery of neutral Higgs bosons (phi^0 = H^0, h^0, A^0) produced with bottom quarks via Higgs decays into muon pairs (pp --> b b-bar phi^0 --> b b-bar mu mu-bar +X) at the CERN LHC are investigated in the minimal supersymmetric model. The complete physics background from the production of b b-bar mu mu-bar, b b-bar W^+ W^- (including t t-bar) and jj mu mu-bar, j = g, u, d, s, c in the Standard Model is calculated with realistic acceptance cuts. This discovery mode has a simple production mechanism from gg --> b b-bar phi^0 with its cross section proportional to 1/cos^2(beta) and could provide an opportunity to measure tan(beta) and the b b-bar phi^0 couplings. In addition, we compare the associated discovery mode above with the inclusive discovery channel pp --> phi^0 --> mu mu-bar +X. Promising results are found for the CP-odd pseudoscalar (A^0) and the heavier CP-even scalar (H^0) Higgs bosons for tan(beta) equivalent to v_2/v_1 >~ 14 and m_A,m_H <~ 325 GeV.Comment: 12 pages, REVTeX, 4 Figure

Higgs Decays into Leptons

We discuss the prospects for the discovery of neutral Higgs bosons ($\phi^0 = H^0, h^0, A^0$) in multi-Higgs doublet models via their decays into leptons at hadron colliders. A major focus will be searching for Higgs bosons produced with bottom quarks via Higgs decays into muon pairs ($pp \to b\bar{b}\phi^0 \to b\bar{b}\mu\bar{\mu} +X$) at the CERN Large Hadron Collider within the framework of the minimal supersymmetric model.Comment: 3 pages, LaTeX with espcrc2.sty, 2 Figures, to appear in the Proceedings of the 31st International Conference on High Energy Physics (ICHEP 2002), July 24 - 31, 2002, in Amsterdam, The Netherland

The Carbon content in the Galactic CygnusX/DR21 star forming region

Observations of Carbon bearing species are among the most important diagnostic probes of ongoing star formation. CO is a surrogate for H$_2$ and is found in the vicinity of star formation sites. There, [CI] emission is thought to outline the dense molecular cores and extend into the lower density regions, where the impinging interstellar UV radiation field plays a critical role for the dissociation and ionization processes. Emission of ionized carbon ([CII]) is found to be even more extended than [CI] and is linking up with the ionized medium. These different tracers emphasize the importance of multi-wavelength studies to draw a coherent picture of the processes driving and driven by high mass star formation. Until now, large scale surveys were only done with low resolution, such as the COBE full sky survey, or were biased to a few selected bright sources (e.g. Yamamoto et al. 2001, Schneider et al. 2003). A broader basis of unbiased, high-resolution observations of [CI], CO, and [CII] may play a key role to probe the material processed by UV radiation.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure, to appear in "Proceedings of the 4th Cologne-Bonn-Zermatt-Symposium", ed. S. Pfalzner, C. Kramer, C. Straubmeier, and A. Heithausen (Springer Verlag

Discovering the Higgs Bosons of Minimal Supersymmetry with Tau Leptons and a Bottom Quark

We investigate the prospects for the discovery at the CERN Large Hadron Collider or at the Fermilab Tevatron of neutral Higgs bosons through the channel where the Higgs are produced together with a single bottom quark and the Higgs decays into a pair of tau leptons, $bg \to b\phi^0 \to b\tau^+\tau^-, \phi^0 = h^0, H^0, A^0$. We work within the framework of the minimal supersymmetric model. The dominant physics background from the production of $b\tau^+\tau^-$, $j\tau^+\tau^-$ ($j = g, u, d, s, c$), $b\bar{b}W^+W^-$, $W+2j$ and $Wbj$ is calculated with realistic acceptance cuts and efficiencies. Promising results are found for the CP-odd pseudoscalar ($A^0$) and the heavier CP-even scalar ($H^0$) Higgs bosons with masses up to one TeV.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Ground-based searches for interstellar H_(2)D^+

We present ground-based searches for the 1_(10) - 1_(11) line of interstellar H_(2)D^(+) at 372 GHz which are more sensitive than those obtained from the Kuiper Airborne Observatory by factors of 3-4 for extended sources and by more than two orders of magnitude for compact sources. The line was not detected in a variety of interstellar clouds, including NGC 2264 toward which a possible detection had been suggested previously. The inferred H_(2)D^(+) abundance limits of 10^(-10) - 10^(-11) are still consistent with, but approach the abundances predicted by chemical models. Simultaneous observations of the DCO^(+) 3-2 and N_(2)H^(+) 4-3 lines have been used to place additional limits on the H_(3)^(+) abundance, and suggest 10^(-11) < x(H_(3)^(+))< 10^(-9). The N_(2)H^(+) data also indicate that for NGC 2264, but perhaps not for the other sources, gas-phase N_2 contains a substantial fraction of the available nitrogen in the cloud

Higgs Boson Discovery Potential of LHC in the Channel pp→γγ+jetpp \to\gamma\gamma+jet

We discuss the SM Higgs discovery potential of LHC in the reaction $pp\to H+ jet\to\gamma\gamma+jet$ when the jet is observed at sufficiently high $E_t$ to be reliably identified. We conclude that this channel gives promising discovery possibilities for the Higgs boson mass range 100-140 GeV, during LHC operation at a low luminosity. With 30 fb$^{-1}$ of accumulated data and for $M_H=120$ GeV about 100 signal events could be observed with the number of background events larger by a factor of 2 only, showing a signal significance $S/\sqrt{B}\sim 7$. We use the difference of distributions in the partonic subprocess energy $\sqrt{\hat s}$ for the signal and background for a better separation of the signal.Comment: 15 pages including 6 figures, LaTeX, use epsfig.sty. To appear in Phys.Lett.B. In this replacement minor LaTeX improvements are mad

Single Charged Higgs production as a probe of CP violation at a Muon Collider

We consider single charged Higgs ($H^{\pm}$) production in association with a $W^{\pm}$ boson at $\mu^+\mu^-$ colliders, in the context of the general CP violating Two Higgs Doublet Model (2HDM). We find that large cross-sections for the processes $\mu^+\mu^-\to H^+W^-,H^-W^+$ are possible, and offer an attractive way of producing $H^{\pm}$ at $\mu^+\mu^-$ colliders. The difference in the cross-sections for $H^+W^-$ and $H^-W^+$ may exceed 1000 fb, and this represents a novel way of probing CP violation in the Higgs sector.Comment: 15 pages, LaTex, 6 figure