Higgs boson phenomenology in tau^+ tau^- final states at the LHC

TL;DR

This study assesses the potential for detecting Higgs bosons decaying into tau pairs via gluon fusion at the LHC, especially within BSM models with enhanced tau decay channels, highlighting feasible parameter space regions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed parton-level analysis of Higgs to tau tau detection prospects at the LHC, applicable to various BSM scenarios with enhanced tau decay branching ratios.

Findings

Certain BSM parameter regions can be probed with minimal luminosity.

Results are adaptable to generic models with similar signatures.

Detection feasibility depends on specific model parameters.

Abstract

We perform a detailed parton level study on the feasibility of the detection of a Higgs boson in the gluon fusion process $pp (gg+gq) \to h + jet \to \tau^+ \tau^- + jet$ at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The obtained results are applied to a few chosen Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) scenarios where the branching ratio of a Higgs boson decaying into a $\tau^+ \tau^-$ pair is enhanced as compared to the Standard Model (SM) case. We present the parameter space of the BSM scenarios that can be observed at the LHC and conclude that some regions of the parameter space can be probed with just a few $fb^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity. Noticeably, our results are presented in a form which potentially allows their application to any generic model giving rise to a $pp (gg+gq) \to h + jet \to \tau^+ \tau^- + jet$ signature.