Potential precision of a direct measurement of the Higgs boson total width at a muon colliderr

Abstract

In the light of the discovery of a 126 GeV Standard-Model-like Higgs boson at the LHC, we evaluate the achievable accuracies for direct measurements of the width, mass, and the s-channel resonant production cross section of the Higgs boson at a proposed muon collider. We find that with a beam energy resolution of R=0.01% (0.003%) and integrated luminosity of 0.5 fb^{-1} (1 fb^{-1}), a muon collider would enable us to determine the Standard-Model-like Higgs width to +/- 0.35 MeV (+/- 0.15 MeV) by combining two complementary channels of the WW^* and b\bar b final states. A non-Standard-Model Higgs with a broader width is also studied. The unparalleled accuracy potentially attainable at a muon collider would test the Higgs interactions to a high precision.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures. Version appeared on Physical Review