How Resonance-Continuum Interference Changes 750 GeV Diphoton Excess: Signal Enhancement and Peak Shift

TL;DR

This paper studies how resonance-continuum interference affects the 750 GeV diphoton excess at the LHC, revealing signal enhancement, peak shifts, and implications for resonance interpretation.

Contribution

It demonstrates that interference effects can significantly alter the observed signal and resonance shape, providing new insights into the interpretation of the 750 GeV diphoton excess.

Findings

Resonance contribution can be enhanced by a factor of up to 2.

Resonance mass range can shift by 1-4 GeV due to interference.

Interference effects become more prominent with decreasing excess rate.

Abstract

The new scalar resonance contribution to the 750 GeV diphoton excess observed at the LHC 13 TeV necessarily interferes with the continuum background in the $gg\to \gamma \gamma$. The interference has two considerable effects: (1) enhancing or suppressing diphoton signal rate due to the imaginary-part interference and (2) distorting resonance shape due to the real-part interference. From the best-fit study of two benchmark models (two Higgs doublets with $\sim$50 GeV widths and a singlet scalar with 5 GeV width, both extended with vector-like fermions), we find that the resonance contribution to the 750 GeV excess can be enhanced by a factor of 2(1.6) for 3(6) fb signal rate and the 68%(95%) CL best-fit mass range can shift by 1-4 (any ${\cal O}$(1)) GeV. If the best-fit excess rate decreases with future data, the interference effects will become more significant. The inevitable interferences can also provide a consistency check of a resonance hypothesis, whether or not future precision shape measurements confirm a Breit-Wigner shape or discover interesting deviations.