Charged Higgs Search via $AW^\pm/HW^\pm$ Channel

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential to discover or exclude charged Higgs bosons decaying via $AW^/HW^$ channels at the 14 TeV LHC, providing detailed collider analysis and bounds within extended Higgs sector models.

Contribution

It introduces a novel search channel for charged Higgs bosons through $AW^/HW^$ decays, with detailed collider analysis and interpretation in the Type II Two Higgs Doublet Model.

Findings

Exclusion bounds vary from 60 fb to 25 fb for certain masses and luminosity.

Discovery potential extends up to 400-600 GeV for charged Higgs masses.

The $H^ o AW^/HW^$ decay mode complements traditional search channels.

Abstract

Models of electroweak symmetry breaking with extended Higgs sectors are theoretically well motivated. In this study, we focus on models with a low energy spectrum containing a pair of charged scalars $H^\pm$, as well as a light scalar H and/or a pseudoscalar A. We study the $H^\pm tb$ associated production with $H^\pm \to AW/HW$, which could reach sizable branching fractions in certain parameter regions. With detailed collider analysis, we obtain the exclusion bounds as well as discovery reach at the 14 TeV LHC for the process $pp \to H^\pm tb \to AW^\pm tb/HW^\pm tb \to \tau\tau bbWW, bbbbWW$. We find that for a daughter particle mass of 70 GeV, the 95% C.L. exclusion reach in $\sigma$xBR varies from about 60 fb to 25 fb, for $m_{H^\pm}$ ranging from 150 GeV to 500 GeV with 300 fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity in the $\tau\tau$ mode. We further interpret these bounds in the context of Type II Two Higgs Doublet Model. The exclusion region in the $m_{H^\pm}-\tan\beta$ plane can be extended to $m_{H^\pm}=$ 600 GeV, while discovery is possible for $m_{H^\pm}\lesssim$ 400 GeV with 300 fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity. The exotic decay mode $H^\pm \to AW^\pm/HW^\pm$ offers a complementary channel to the conventional mode $H^\pm \to \tau\nu$ for charged Higgs searches.