Optimizing Higgs factories by modifying the recoil mass

It is difficult to measure the $WW$-fusion Higgs production process ($e^+e^- \to \nu \bar{\nu} h$) at a lepton collider with a center of mass energy of 240-250 GeV due to its small rate and the large background from the Higgsstrahlung process with an invisible $Z$ ($e^+e^- \to hZ,\,Z\to \nu\bar{\nu}$). We construct a modified recoil mass variable, $m^p_{\rm recoil}$, defined using only the 3-momentum of the reconstructed Higgs particle, and show that it can better separate the $WW$-fusion and Higgsstrahlung events than the original recoil mass variable $m_{\rm recoil}$. Consequently, the $m^p_{\rm recoil}$ variable can be used to improve the overall precisions of the extracted Higgs couplings, in both the conventional framework and the effective-field-theory framework. We also explore the application of the $m^p_{\rm recoil}$ variable in the inclusive cross section measurements of the Higgsstrahlung process, while a quantitive analysis is left for future studies.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figure

The leptonic future of the Higgs

Precision study of electroweak symmetry breaking strongly motivates the construction of a lepton collider with center-of-mass energy of at least 240 GeV. Besides Higgsstrahlung ($e^+e^- \to hZ$), such a collider would measure weak boson pair production ($e^+e^- \to WW$) with an astonishing precision. The weak-boson-fusion production process ($e^+e^- \to \nu \bar{\nu} h$) provides an increasingly powerful handle at higher center-of-mass energies. High energies also benefit the associated top-Higgs production ($e^+e^-\to t\bar th$) that is crucial to constrain directly the top Yukawa coupling. The impact and complementarity of differential measurements, at different center-of-mass energies and for several beam polarization configurations, are studied in a global effective-field-theory framework. We define a "global determinant parameter" (GDP) which characterizes the overall strengthening of constraints independently of the choice of operator basis. The reach of the CEPC, CLIC, FCC-ee, and ILC designs is assessed.Comment: 55 pages, lots of figures, v2: references added, minor corrections, extended discussions on quadratic EFT contributions and beam polarization effects, matches published version in JHE

Higgs mass from compositeness at a multi-TeV scale

Within composite Higgs models based on the top seesaw mechanism, we show that the Higgs field can arise as the pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson of the broken U(3)_L chiral symmetry associated with a vector-like quark and the t-b doublet. As a result, the lightest CP-even neutral state of the composite scalar sector is lighter than the top quark, and can be identified as the newly discovered Higgs boson. Constraints on weak isospin violation push the chiral symmetry breaking scale above a few TeV, implying that other composite scalars are probably too heavy to be probed at the LHC, but may be within reach at a future hadron collider with center-of-mass energy of about 100 TeV.Comment: 30 pages. v2: discussion of T parameter expanded; references added. To be published in JHE

Beyond Higgs Couplings: Probing the Higgs with Angular Observables at Future e+e−e^+ e^- Colliders

We study angular observables in the $e^+e^-\to Z H\to \ell^+ \ell^-\,b\bar{b}$ channel at future circular $e^+ e^-$ colliders such as CEPC and FCC-ee. Taking into account the impact of realistic cut acceptance and detector effects, we forecast the precision of six angular asymmetries at CEPC (FCC-ee) with center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} =$ 240 GeV and 5 (30) ${\rm ab}^{-1}$ integrated luminosity. We then determine the projected sensitivity to a range of operators relevant for the Higgs-strahlung process in the dimension-6 Higgs EFT. Our results show that angular observables provide complementary sensitivity to rate measurements when constraining various tensor structures arising from new physics. We further find that angular asymmetries provide a novel means of both probing BSM corrections to the $H Z \gamma$ coupling and constraining the "blind spot" in indirect limits on supersymmetric scalar top partners.Comment: 28 pages, 9 figures. v2: references added, matches published version in JHE