Higgs production as a probe of anomalous top couplings

TL;DR

This paper explores how measuring Higgs production at the LHC can serve as a sensitive probe for detecting anomalous top quark couplings, potentially surpassing other experimental constraints.

Contribution

It demonstrates that Higgs production measurements can provide stronger limits on anomalous top couplings than existing low-energy and direct top pair-production bounds.

Findings

Higgs production cross-section is sensitive to top couplings.

Potential for tighter constraints on top anomalies than current methods.

Implications for new physics searches at the LHC.

Abstract

The LHC may be currently seeing the first hints of the Higgs boson. The dominant production mode for the Higgs at the LHC involves a top-quark loop. An accurate measurement of Higgs production cross-sections and decay widths can thus be used to obtain limits on anomalous top couplings. We find that such an exercise could potentially yield constraints that are stronger than those derived from low-energy observables as well as direct bounds expected from the top pair-production process.