2020/05/31 by Davide Pagani, Hua-Sheng Shao, Marco Zaro · 27 citations
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Boson #Computational Physics and Python Applications #Electroweak interaction #Higgs boson #Large Hadron Collider #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #Production (economics) #Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions #Quantum chromodynamics #Top quark #Yukawa potential #hep-ex #hep-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/jhep11(2020)036
published in Journal of High Energy Physics 2020(11) (Springer Nature) · 33 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables. Version accepted for publication in JHEP
openalex created_date 2020/05/29 · openalex publication_date 2020/11/01 · arxiv created 2020/11/18 · arxiv updated 2020/11/19 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
A bstract The hadroproduction of a Higgs boson in association with a bottom-quark pair ( Hbb <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>Hb</mml:mi><mml:mover><mml:mi>b</mml:mi><mml:mo>¯</mml:mo></mml:mover></mml:math> ) is commonly considered as the key process for directly probing the Yukawa interaction between the Higgs boson and the bottom quark ( y b ). However, in the Standard-Model (SM) this process is also known to suffer from very large irreducible backgrounds from other Higgs production channels, notably gluon-fusion ( gg F). In this paper we calculate for the first time the so-called QCD and electroweak complete-NLO predictions for Hbb <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>Hb</mml:mi><mml:mover><mml:mi>b</mml:mi><mml:mo>¯</mml:mo></mml:mover></mml:math> production, using the four-flavour scheme. Our calculation shows that not only the gg F but also the ZH and even the vector-boson-fusion channels are sizeable irreducible backgrounds. Moreover, we demonstrate that, at the LHC, the rates of these backgrounds are very large with respect to the “genuine” and y b -dependent Hbb <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>Hb</mml:mi><mml:mover><mml:mi>b</mml:mi><mml:mo>¯</mml:mo></mml:mover></mml:math> production mode. In particular, no suppression occurs at the differential level and therefore backgrounds survive typical analysis cuts. This fact further jeopardises the chances of measuring at the LHC the y b -dependent component of Hbb <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"><mml:mi>Hb</mml:mi><mml:mover><mml:mi>b</mml:mi><mml:mo>¯</mml:mo></mml:mover></mml:math> production in the SM. Especially, unless y b is significantly enlarged by new physics, even for beyond-the SM scenarios the direct determination of y b via this process seems to be hopeless at the LHC.