Resonant production of Wh and Zh at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper investigates the production of Wh and Zh pairs at the LHC within a non-linear Higgs effective theory, exploring the impact of axial-vector resonances and assessing experimental detectability.

Contribution

It introduces a unitarized effective theory framework including axial-vector resonances to predict Wh and Zh production at the LHC, comparing different theoretical extensions.

Findings

Resonance effects can significantly enhance production cross-sections.

Different unitarization methods yield consistent predictions.

ATLAS and CMS have potential sensitivity to these resonances.

Abstract

We examine the production of Wh and Zh pairs at the LHC in the context of a Strongly Interacting Symmetry Breaking Sector of the Standard Model. Our description is based on a non-linear Higgs Effective Theory, including only the Standard Model particles. We focus on its scalar sector (Higgs boson h and electroweak Goldstones associated to $W_L^\pm$ and $Z_L$), which is expected to give the strongest beyond Standard Model rescattering effects. The range of the effective theory is extended with dispersion-relation based unitarization, and compared to the alternative extension with explicit axial-vector resonances. We estimate the Wh and Zh production cross-section, where an intermediate axial-vector resonance is generated for certain values of the chiral couplings. We exemplify our analysis with a benchmark axial-vector with $M_A=3$ TeV. Interestingly enough, these different approaches provide essentially the same prediction. Finally we discuss the sensitivity of ATLAS and CMS to such resonances.