Higgs boson decays to four fermions through an abelian hidden sector

TL;DR

This paper explores how a hidden abelian sector can cause the Higgs boson to decay into four fermions via exotic gauge bosons, affecting collider phenomenology.

Contribution

It introduces a model where the Higgs mixes with a hidden sector, leading to novel four-fermion decay channels and implications for collider experiments.

Findings

Higgs can decay into four fermions via hidden sector gauge bosons

The model predicts distinctive signatures in four-lepton final states

Impacts Higgs search strategies at colliders

Abstract

We consider a generic abelian hidden sector that couples to the Standard Model only through gauge-invariant renormalizable operators. This allows the exotic Higgs boson to mix with the Standard Model Higgs boson, and the exotic abelian gauge boson to mix with the Standard Model hypercharge gauge boson. One immediate consequence of spontaneous breaking of the hidden sector gauge group is the possible decay of the lightest Higgs boson into four fermions through intermediate exotic gauge bosons. We study the implications of this decay for Higgs boson phenomenology at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider and the CERN Large Hadron Collider. Our emphasis is on the four lepton final state.