# Resonant Di-Higgs Production in the $b{\bar b}WW$ Channel: Probing the Electroweak Phase Transition at the LHC

## TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of using resonant di-Higgs production in the $bar{b} W^+ W^-$ channel at the LHC to investigate the electroweak phase transition, introducing a new mass reconstruction algorithm to enhance sensitivity.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel invariant mass reconstruction technique for the $bar{b} W^+ W^-$ final state, improving the search strategy for resonant di-Higgs production related to the electroweak phase transition.

## Key findings

- Resonant di-Higgs production could be detectable with current LHC data.
- The new reconstruction algorithm enhances sensitivity in the $bar{b} W^+ W^-$ channel.
- High Luminosity LHC data could enable discovery of this process.

## Abstract

We analyze the prospects for resonant di-Higgs production searches at the LHC in the $b\bar{b} W^+ W^-$ ($W^{+} \to \ell^{+} \nu_{\ell}$, $W^{-} \to \ell^{-} \bar{\nu}_{\ell}$) channel, as a probe of the nature of the electroweak phase transition in Higgs portal extensions of the Standard Model. In order to maximize the sensitivity in this final state, we develop a new algorithm for the reconstruction of the $b \bar{b} W^+ W^-$ invariant mass in the presence of neutrinos from the $W$ decays, building from a technique developed for the reconstruction of resonances decaying to $\tau^{+}\tau^{-}$ pairs. We show that resonant di-Higgs production in the $b\bar{b} W^+ W^-$ channel could be a competitive probe of the electroweak phase transition already with the datasets to be collected by the CMS and ATLAS experiments in Run-2 of the LHC. The increase in sensitivity with larger amounts of data accumulated during the High Luminosity LHC phase can be sufficient to enable a potential discovery of the resonant di-Higgs production in this channel.