Partially (in)visible Higgs decays at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential to detect or constrain exotic Higgs decay modes involving partially invisible final states at the LHC, focusing on $H ightarrow AA ightarrow jets+missing energy$ channels.

Contribution

It provides a systematic analysis of the constraints on exotic Higgs decay modes with partially invisible final states at the LHC, demonstrating the potential to limit branching ratios to about 10%.

Findings

Constraints on exotic Higgs decays can reach approximately 10% branching ratio.

Partially invisible decay channels are challenging but feasible to analyze at the LHC.

The study offers a methodology for probing non-standard Higgs decay modes.

Abstract

Both Atlas and CMS have reported a discovery of a Standard Model-like Higgs boson $H$ of mass around 125 GeV. Consistency with the Standard Model implies the non-observation of non-SM like decay modes of the newly discovered particle. Sensitivity to such decay modes, especially when they involve partially invisible final states is currently beyond scrutiny of the LHC. We systematically study such decay channels in the form of $H\rightarrow AA\rightarrow jets+missing energy$, with $A$ a light scalar or scalar, and analyze to what extent these exotic branching fractions can be constrained by direct measurements at the LHC. While the analysis is challenging, constraints as good as ${BR}\lesssim 10%$ can be obtained.