H and A Discrimination using Linear Polarization of Photons at the PLC

TL;DR

This paper evaluates the potential of a photon linear collider with linearly polarized photons to discriminate between Higgs bosons H and A in the MSSM, considering background and cross-section changes.

Contribution

It provides the first realistic estimate of using linear polarization at the Photon Linear Collider for CP-parity analysis of Higgs bosons in the MSSM.

Findings

Significant increase in heavy quark background with linear polarization.

Higgs boson production cross sections decrease by a factor of two.

H and A Higgs bosons can be distinguished at 4.5 sigma after three years.

Abstract

First realistic estimate of the usefulness of the Photon Linear Collider with linearly polarized photons as analyzer of the CP-parity of Higgs bosons is presented. MSSM Higgs bosons H and A with 300 GeV mass, for the model parameters corresponding to the so called "LHC wedge" region, are considered. When switching from circular to linear photon polarization a significant increase in heavy quark production background, which is no longer suppressed by helicity conservation, and decrease of the Higgs boson production cross sections by a factor of two is expected. Nevertheless, after three years of Photon Linear Collider running heavy scalar and pseudoscalar Higgs bosons in MSSM can be distinguished at a 4.5 sigma level.