The production of the heavy scalar H in association with top and anti-top quarks

TL;DR

This paper investigates the production of a heavy scalar H in association with top quarks at the LHC, using an effective field theory approach, and compares it to Standard Model Higgs production, analyzing various decay channels and observables.

Contribution

It introduces a benchmark scenario for heavy scalar H production with top quarks and compares it to Standard Model Higgs processes at the LHC, including decay modes and event observables.

Findings

Heavy scalar H production differs from SM Higgs in top-associated processes.

Decay mode H → h χχ significantly affects event signatures.

Analysis of observables helps distinguish new scalar signals from SM background.

Abstract

Following arXiv:1506.00612, an effective field theory approach has been introduced for two additional real scalars, $H$ and $\chi$, to study the associated Higgs boson ($h$) production with top quarks at the Large Hadron Collider with centre of mass energy $\sqrt s = 8$ TeV. In all studies, one benchmark scenario is considered where the parameters of the model are constrained for $m_H = 275$ GeV and $m_\chi = 60$ GeV. A comparative study has been performed for the production of the Higgs boson in association with a single top and top-pairs in the Standard Model with respect to the processes where $h$ is replaced with the heavy scalar $H$, which further decays via $H \to h \chi\chi$. The analysis has been performed at two stages where the top quarks are studied through a single-lepton channel firstly, and then in the second case with same-sign leptons, electrons or muons in di-lepton events. Different observables, like $b$ and $c$-tagged jet multiplicities, total missing energy, and total scalar sum of transverse momenta of all jets and leptons, has been studied.