Constraints on the Lee-Wick Higgs Sector

TL;DR

This paper investigates the constraints on a Lee-Wick extension of the Higgs sector, focusing on a two-Higgs doublet model with unusual kinetic terms, and derives bounds from flavor physics and Z decays.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed analysis of experimental bounds on the Lee-Wick Higgs sector with a modified two-Higgs doublet model.

Findings

Bounds from neutral B-meson mixing constrain the model.

Constraints from b --> X_s gamma decay are significant.

Z --> b b-bar decay measurements impose additional limits.

Abstract

Lee-Wick partners to the Standard Model Higgs doublet may appear at a mass scale that is significantly lower than that of the remaining Lee-Wick partner states. The relevant effective theory is a two-Higgs doublet model in which one doublet has wrong-sign kinetic and mass terms. We determine bounds on this effective theory, including those from neutral B-meson mixing, b --> X_s gamma, and Z --> b b-bar. The results differ from those of conventional two-Higgs doublet models and lead to meaningful constraints on the Lee-Wick Higgs sector.