2024/10/28 by Benoît Assi, A. Martin, Assi, Benoît +1 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Physics - Phenomenology (hep-ph) #Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers #Particle Detector Development and Performance #Superconducting Materials and Applications
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2410.21563
openalex publication_date 2024/10/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study Higgs boson production via vector boson fusion at the LHC, focusing on the process pp → H + jj and capturing the leading energy-enhanced contributions within the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT) up to order 1/Λ4. Employing energy-scaling arguments, we predict the magnitude of each higher-dimensional operator's contribution. Utilizing the geometric formulation of SMEFT, our analysis incorporates dimension-eight operators not previously considered. We find that the kinematics of vector boson fusion - characterized by two highly forward jets - tend to suppress contributions from higher-dimensional operators, requiring a lower scale Λ for SMEFT effects to become observable. This suggests that the SMEFT remains valid for lower Λ than expected. Combined with the fact that LEP constrains the dimension-six operators with the most considerable impact on vector boson fusion, a regime exists where dimension-eight operators can have significant effects. In many cases, these dimension-eight operators also influence associated production processes like pp → H V(jj), though differences in analysis cuts and kinematics mean this is not always the case. Our findings provide insights that could refine the search for SMEFT signals in collider experiments.