Fingerprinting Higgs Suspects at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper presents a method to analyze deviations from the Standard Model Higgs boson properties using current LHC data, assessing the consistency of the SM Higgs with experimental results and identifying key observables to distinguish potential deviations.

Contribution

It introduces a global fit approach with two parameters to characterize Higgs deviations and applies it to current data, updating the consistency level of the SM Higgs.

Findings

SM Higgs consistent with data at 82% CL in 2012

Updated analysis shows 94% CL, indicating increased tension

Identifies observables to resolve degeneracy in Higgs coupling deviations

Abstract

We outline a method for characterizing deviations from the properties of a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson. We apply it to current data in order to characterize up to which degree the SM Higgs boson interpretation is consistent with experiment. We find that the SM Higgs boson is consistent with the current data set at the 82 % confidence level, based on data of excess events reported by CMS and ATLAS, which are interpreted to be related to the mass scale mh = 124-126 GeV, and on published CL_s exclusion regions. We perform a global fit in terms of two parameters characterizing the deviation from the SM value in the gauge and fermion couplings of a Higgs boson. We find two minima in the global fit and identify observables that can remove this degeneracy. An update for Moriond 2012 data is included in the Appendix, which finds that the SM Higgs boson is now consistent with the current data set at only the 94 % confidence level (which corresponds to ~ 2 sigma tension compared to the best fit point).