Probing the nature of the Higgs-like Boson via h -> VF decays

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the decay processes of the Higgs-like boson into vector and fermionic states, providing a framework to extract modified couplings and exploring rare decay modes to probe the Higgs properties and vacuum structure.

Contribution

It introduces a general decomposition of h -> VF amplitudes and demonstrates how differential distributions and rare decays can reveal new Higgs coupling information beyond standard global fits.

Findings

Differential distributions can determine modified Higgs couplings.

Rare h -> VP decays offer complementary coupling information.

The framework applies to both the Standard Model and effective field theories.

Abstract

We give a general decomposition of the h -> VF amplitude where V={W,Z} and F is a generic leptonic or hadronic final state, in the standard model (SM), and in the context of a general effective field theory. The differential distributions for F=l^+l^-, l nu (l =e, mu) are reported, and we show how such distributions can be used to determine modified Higgs couplings that cannot be directly extracted from a global fit to Higgs signal strengths. We also demonstrate how rare h -> VP decays, where P is a single hadron, with SM rates in the 10^{-5} range, can be used to provide complementary information on the couplings of the newly discovered Higgs-like scalar and are an interesting probe of the vacuum structure of the theory.