Associated central exclusive production of charged Higgs bosons

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential for observing charged Higgs bosons produced alongside W bosons in proton collisions, proposing a new detection signature within extended Higgs models at the LHC.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of central exclusive production of charged Higgs bosons with a W boson and calculates the production cross section for this process.

Findings

Potential observability at the LHC in certain two-Higgs doublet models

Cross section estimates suggest feasible detection rates

Discussion of prospects within the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model

Abstract

We propose central exclusive production of a charged Higgs boson in association with a W boson as a possible signature of certain types of extended Higgs sectors. We calculate the cross section and find that the rate at the LHC could be large enough to allow observation in some models with two Higgs doublets, where the charged Higgs and at least one of the neutral scalars can be light enough. We use the two-Higgs doublet model as a prototype and consider two distinct regions of parameter space, but we also briefly discuss the prospects for the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model, where the charged Higgs may very well be quite light.