Signal-background interference in gg --> H --> VV

TL;DR

This paper investigates the interference effects between Higgs signal and background processes in gluon-gluon fusion leading to vector boson pairs, analyzing their impact on cross sections and distributions at LHC energies.

Contribution

It provides a leading-order analysis of signal-background interference in gg --> H --> VV processes, including realistic cuts and leptonic decays, for different collider energies.

Findings

Interference effects significantly affect cross section measurements.

Differential distributions are altered by interference, impacting experimental analyses.

Results are applicable to Higgs mass of 400 GeV at 7 and 14 TeV.

Abstract

The resonance-continuum interference between the SM Higgs search signal process gg --> H --> VV (V=W,Z) and the irreducible background process gg --> VV is studied at leading order for integrated cross sections and differential distributions in pp collisions at \sqrt{s}=7 TeV and 14 TeV for M_H=400 GeV. Leptonic weak boson decays are included, and realistic experimental selection cuts are applied.