Confirming the LHC Higgs Discovery with WW

TL;DR

This paper assesses the potential for discovering the Higgs boson decaying into WW at the LHC, demonstrating feasible detection with specific energy and luminosity conditions and discussing implications for the Higgs' properties.

Contribution

It presents a detailed analysis of Higgs to WW decay detection prospects at the LHC, including mass reconstruction techniques and discovery significance estimates.

Findings

Potential 6σ signal at 8 TeV with 25 fb$^{-1}$

5σ discovery possible at 14 TeV with 6 fb$^{-1}$

Supports the Higgs as a CP-even scalar if spin is zero

Abstract

We investigate the prospects of observing a neutral Higgs boson decaying into a pair of $W$ bosons (one real and the other virtual), followed by the $W$ decays into $qq' \ell\nu$ or $jj\ell\nu$ at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Assuming that the missing transverse energy comes solely from the neutrino in $W$ decay, we can reconstruct the $W$ masses and then the Higgs mass. At the LHC with a center of mass energy ($\sqrt{s}$) of 8 TeV and an integrated luminosity ($L$) of 25 fb$^{-1}$, we can potentially establish a $6\sigma$ signal. A $5\sigma$ discovery of $H \to WW^* \to jj\ell\nu$ for $\sqrt{s} = 14$ TeV can be achieved with $L = $ 6 fb$^{-1}$. The discovery of $H \to WW$ implies that the recently discovered new boson is a CP-even scalar if its spin is zero. In addition, this channel will provide a good opportunity to study the $HWW$ coupling.