$H^\pm$ in the $W^\pm h$ channel at the LHC Run 2

TL;DR

This paper investigates the potential to discover charged Higgs bosons via the $W^\pm h$ decay channel at the LHC, finding it promising in 2HDMs but not in the MSSM due to the observed Higgs mass.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the $W^\pm h$ channel for charged Higgs detection in 2HDMs, highlighting its viability and limitations within MSSM.

Findings

Channel inaccessible in MSSM due to Higgs mass constraints

Certain 2HDM parameter regions are testable at 14 TeV LHC

Signal-to-background analysis supports potential discovery

Abstract

We analyse the discovery prospects of the charged Higgs boson, $H^\pm$, via its decay in the $W^\pm h$ channel in the minimal supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) as well as several 2-Higgs Doublet Models (2HDMs). $h$, the lightest scalar Higgs boson in these models, is identified with the recently discovered $\sim 125$ GeV state, $H_\text{obs}$, at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). We find that, while it provides an important input in the kinematic selection of signal events, the measured $H_\text{obs}$ mass renders this channel inaccessible in the MSSM. In the 2HDMs though, through a dedicated signal-to-background analysis for the $pp\to t(\bar{b})H^-\to \ell^\pm\nu_\ell jj bb\bar{b}(\bar{b})$+h.c process, we establish that some parameter space regions will be testable at the LHC with $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV.