Neutral Higgs boson pair production in photon-photon annihilation in the Two Higgs Doublet Model

TL;DR

This paper investigates neutral Higgs boson pair production in photon-photon collisions within the Two Higgs Doublet Model, revealing significant cross section enhancements and potential experimental signatures distinct from the Standard Model.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of Higgs pair production mechanisms and identifies parameter regions with enhanced cross sections in the Two Higgs Doublet Model.

Findings

Cross sections can be two orders of magnitude above the Standard Model.

Threshold effects significantly enhance production near certain energies.

Resonant effects from heavy Higgs can further increase cross sections.

Abstract

We study double Higgs production in photon-photon collisions as a probe of the new dynamics of Higgs interactions in the framework of two Higgs Doublet Models. We analyze neutral Higgs bosons production and decay in the fusion processes, $\gamma \gamma \to S_iS_j$, $S_i=h^0, H^0, A^0$, and show that both $h^0h^0$ and $A^0A^0$ production can be enhanced by threshold effects in the region $E_{\gamma\gamma}\approx 2 m_{H\pm}$. Resonant effects due to the heavy Higgs, $H^0$, can also play a role in the cross section enhancement when it is allowed to decay to two light CP-even $h^0$ or to two light CP-odd $A^0$ scalars. We have scanned the allowed parameter space of the Two Higgs Doublet Model and found a vast region of the parameter space where the cross section is two orders of magnitude above the Standard Model cross section. We further show that the Standard Model experimental analysis can be used to discover or to constraint the two Higgs doublet model parameter space.