Higher dimensional operators and LHC Higgs data : the role of modified kinematics

TL;DR

This paper investigates how higher-dimensional operators alter Higgs kinematics and efficiencies at the LHC, finding limited sensitivity to these modifications within current experimental uncertainties.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the impact of higher-dimensional operators on Higgs kinematics and experimental efficiencies, considering various operator strengths.

Findings

Efficiencies can differ significantly in some parameter regions.

Sensitivity to new operators is limited within 2-sigma experimental bounds.

Kinematic distributions, including diphoton final states, are modified by these operators.

Abstract

The inclusion of higher-dimensional gauge invariant operators induces new Lorentz structures in Higgs couplings with electroweak gauge boson pairs. This in principle affects the kinematics of Higgs production and decay, thereby modifying the efficiencies of the experimental cuts compared to what simulations based on the standard model interactions yield. Taking some sample cases, we perform a rigorous analysis of how the efficiencies differ for various strengths of the additional operator vis-a-vis the standard model interactions, scanning over the values of both of them. While the response to cuts can be markedly different in some regions, we find that the sensitivity to new operator structures is relatively limited, so long as we remain confined to the 2-sigma regions around the best fit signal strengths measured at the Large Hadron Collider. We also show modifications to certain kinematical distributions including the new operators in the diphoton final state.