Revisiting $HW\rightarrow\gamma\gamma\ell\nu$

TL;DR

This paper examines the Higgs boson signal in the $H ightarrow\gamma\gamma$ channel, focusing on the impact of NLO background enhancement on the associated production process.

Contribution

It revisits the Higgs to gamma gamma analysis considering the significant next-to-leading order background effects.

Findings

NLO corrections substantially increase the background estimate.

The Higgs signal remains observable despite background enhancement.

Implications for Higgs coupling measurements are discussed.

Abstract

A new particle of mass around 125 GeV is known to have loop induced couplings to $gg$ and $\gamma\gamma$. More specific to the Higgs interpretation are tree level couplings to $W$ and $Z$. A small but clean signal of the Higgs coupling to $W$ arises from associated production of a Higgs, with $H\rightarrow\gamma\gamma$. We consider this signal in light of a large NLO enhancement of the irreducible background.