Robust LHC Higgs Search in Weak Boson Fusion

We demonstrate that an LHC Higgs search in weak boson fusion production with subsequent decay to weak boson pairs is robust against extensions of the Standard Model or MSSM involving a large number of Higgs doublets. We also show that the transverse mass distribution provides unambiguous discrimination of a continuum Higgs signal from the Standard Model.Comment: 12p, 2 figs., additional comments on backgrounds, version to appear in PR

Charged Higgs Boson Pairs at the LHC

We compute the cross section for pair production of charged Higgs bosons at the LHC and compare the three production mechanisms. The bottom-parton scattering process is computed to NLO, and the validity of the bottom-parton approach is established in detail. The light-flavor Drell-Yan cross section is evaluated at NLO as well. The gluon fusion process through a one-loop amplitude is then compared with these two results. We show how a complete sample of events could look, in terms of total cross sections and distributions of the heavy final states.Comment: 15 pages with 8 figure

Determining the Higgs Boson Self Coupling at Hadron Colliders

Inclusive Standard Model Higgs boson pair production at hadron colliders has the capability to determine the Higgs boson self-coupling, lambda. We present a detailed analysis of the gg\to HH\to (W^+W^-)(W^+W^-)\to (jjl^\pm\nu)(jj{l'}^\pm\nu) and gg\to HH\to (W^+W^-)(W^+W^-)\to (jjl^\pm\nu)({l'}^\pm\nu {l''}^\mp\nu) (l, {l'}, {l''}=e, \mu) signal channels, and the relevant background processes, for the CERN Large Hadron Collider, and a future Very Large Hadron Collider operating at a center-of-mass energy of 200 TeV. We also derive quantitative sensitivity limits for lambda. We find that it should be possible at the LHC with design luminosity to establish that the Standard Model Higgs boson has a non-zero self-coupling and that lambda / lambda_{SM} can be restricted to a range of 0-3.8 at 95% confidence level (CL) if its mass is between 150 and 200 GeV. At a 200 TeV collider with an integrated luminosity of 300 fb^{-1}, lambda can be determined with an accuracy of 8 - 25% at 95% CL in the same mass range.Comment: 28 pages, Revtex3, 9 figures, 3 table

H-->WW as the discovery mode for a light Higgs boson

The production cross section for a m_H=115 GeV, SM Higgs boson in weak boson fusion at the LHC is sizable. However, the branching fraction for H-->WW is expected to be relatively small. The signal, with its two forward jets, is sufficiently different from the main backgrounds that a signal to background ratio of better than 1:1 can nevertheless be obtained, with large enough rate to allow for a 5 sigma signal with 35 fb^{-1} of data. The H-->WW signal in weak boson fusion may thus prove to be the discovery mode for the Higgs boson at the LHC.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, uses revte

Associated Production of a Top Quark and a Charged Higgs Boson

We compute the inclusive and differential cross sections for the associated production of a top quark along with a charged Higgs boson at hadron colliders to next-to-leading order (NLO) in perturbative quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and in supersymmetric QCD. For small Higgs boson masses we include top quark pair production diagrams with subsequent top quark decay into a bottom quark and a charged Higgs boson. We compare the NLO differential cross sections obtained in the bottom parton picture with those for the gluon-initiated production process and find good agreement. The effects of supersymmetric loop contributions are explored. Only the corrections to the Yukawa coupling are sizable in the potential discovery region at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). All expressions and numerical results are fully differential, permitting selections on the momenta of both the top quark and the charged Higgs boson.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures; section, figures, equations and references added, version to appear in PRD, 33 pages, 11 figure

Examining the Higgs boson potential at lepton and hadron colliders: a comparative analysis

We investigate inclusive Standard Model Higgs boson pair production at lepton and hadron colliders for Higgs boson masses in the range 120 GeV < m_H < 200 GeV. For m_H < 140 GeV we find that hadron colliders have a very limited capability to determine the Higgs boson self-coupling, \lambda, due to an overwhelming background. We also find that, in this mass range, supersymmetric Higgs boson pairs may be observable at the LHC, but a measurement of the self coupling will not be possible. For m_H > 140 GeV we examine ZHH and HH nu bar-nu production at a future e+e- linear collider with center of mass energy in the range of sqrt{s}=0.5 - 1 TeV, and find that this is likely to be equally difficult. Combining our results with those of previous literature, which has demonstrated the capability of hadron and lepton machines to determine \lambda in either the high or the low mass regions, we establish a very strong complementarity of these machines.Comment: Revtex, 25 pages, 2 tables, 10 figure

The Hardness of Embedding Grids and Walls

The dichotomy conjecture for the parameterized embedding problem states that the problem of deciding whether a given graph $G$ from some class $K$ of "pattern graphs" can be embedded into a given graph $H$ (that is, is isomorphic to a subgraph of $H$) is fixed-parameter tractable if $K$ is a class of graphs of bounded tree width and $W[1]$-complete otherwise. Towards this conjecture, we prove that the embedding problem is $W[1]$-complete if $K$ is the class of all grids or the class of all walls

Determining the Structure of Higgs Couplings at the LHC

Higgs boson production via weak boson fusion at the CERN Large Hadron Collider has the capability to determine the dominant CP nature of a Higgs boson, via the tensor structure of its coupling to weak bosons. This information is contained in the azimuthal angle distribution of the two outgoing forward tagging jets. The technique is independent of both the Higgs boson mass and the observed decay channel.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, version accepted for publication in PR

Phenomenology of Mirror Fermions in the Littlest Higgs Model with T-Parity

Little Higgs models are an interesting alternative to explain electroweak symmetry breaking without fine-tuning. Supplemented with a discrete symmetry (T-parity) constraints from electroweak precision data are naturally evaded and also a viable dark matter candidate is obtained. T-parity implies the existence of new (mirror) fermions in addition to the heavy gauge bosons of the little Higgs models. In this paper we consider the effects of the mirror fermions on the phenomenology of the littlest Higgs model with T-parity at the LHC. We study the most promising production channels and decay chains for the new particles. We find that the mirror fermions have a large impact on the magnitude of signal rates and on the new physics signatures. Realistic background estimates are given.Comment: 13 p

The Triple Higgs Boson Self-Coupling at Future Linear e+e- Colliders Energies: ILC and CLIC

We analyzed the triple Higgs boson self-coupling at future $e^{+}e^{-}$ colliders energies, with the reactions $e^{+}e^{-}\to b \bar b HH, t \bar t HH$. We evaluate the total cross-sections for both $b\bar bHH$ and $t\bar tHH$, and calculate the total number of events considering the complete set of Feynman diagrams at tree-level. We vary the triple coupling $\kappa\lambda_{3H}$ within the range $\kappa=-1$ and +2. The numerical computation is done for the energies expected to be available at a possible Future Linear $e^{+}e^{-}$ Collider with a center-of-mass energy $800, 1000, 1500$ $GeV$ and a luminosity 1000 $fb^{-1}$. Our analysis is also extended to a center-of-mass energy 3 $TeV$ and luminosities of 1000 $fb^{-1}$ and 5000 $fb^{-1}$. We found that for the process $e^{+}e^{-}\to b \bar b HH$, the complete calculation differs only by 3% from the approximate calculation $e^{+}e^{-}\to ZHH(Z\to b\bar b)$, while for the process $e^{+}e^{-}\to t \bar tHH$, the expected number of events, considering the decay products of both $t$ and $H$, is not enough to obtain an accurate determination of the triple Higgs boson self-coupling.Comment: 19 pages, 12 figure