Associated W and Higgs boson photoproduction and other electroweak photon induced processes at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper explores photon-induced electroweak processes at the LHC, including Higgs and W boson production, analyzing cross sections, detection strategies, and potential for observing rare signals with realistic detector assumptions.

Contribution

It provides detailed cross section calculations and proposes detection strategies for photon-induced electroweak processes at the LHC, including Higgs and top-associated productions.

Findings

Photoproduction cross section for Higgs and W bosons is about 20 fb.

Detection of associated Higgs-W production is feasible with signal-to-noise ratio near unity.

Photon interaction tagging can effectively identify electroweak photon-induced processes.

Abstract

Experimental prospects for studying at the LHC photon-proton interactions at center of mass energies up to and above 1 TeV are discussed. Cross sections are presented for many electroweak and beyond the Standard Model processes. Selection strategies based on photon interaction tagging techniques are discussed. Assuming a typical LHC multipurpose detector, the production of single top associated to a W, and anomalous top signals and their irreducible backgrounds are presented after applying detector acceptance cuts. The associated photoproduction of Higgs and W bosons has a typical cross section of 20 fb. The possibility of observing this reaction is investigated for topologies with signal-to-noise ratio close to unity.