Higgs Measurements at a Muon Collider

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of a muon collider to precisely measure Higgs boson properties through s-channel production, demonstrating high accuracy in mass and width measurements with specific decay channels.

Contribution

It presents a detailed study of Higgs production and measurement capabilities at a proposed muon collider, highlighting the potential for high-precision Higgs property determination.

Findings

Higgs mass can be measured within 0.25 MeV

Higgs width can be measured within 0.45 MeV

H^0 -> bb and H^0 -> WW^* are key channels for discovery

Abstract

In light of the recent discovery of an approximately 126 GeV Higgs boson at the LHC, the particle physics community is beginning to explore the possibilities for a next-generation Higgs factory particle accelerator. In this report we study the s-channel resonant Higgs boson production and Standard Model backgrounds at a proposed \mu+\mu- collider Higgs factory operating at center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = M_H with a beam width of 4.2 MeV. We study PYTHIA-generated Standard Model Higgs and background events at the generator level to identify and evaluate important channels for discovery and measurement of the Higgs mass, width, and branching ratios. We find that the H^0 -> bb and H^0 -> WW^* channels are the most useful for locating the Higgs peak. With an integrated luminosity of 1 fb^-1 we can measure a 126 GeV Standard Model Higgs mass accurately to within 0.25 MeV and its total width to within 0.45 MeV. Our results demonstrate the value of the high Higgs cross section and narrow beam resolution potentially achievable at a muon collider.