$W^+ W^- H$ Production at Lepton Colliders: A New Hope for Heavy Neutral Leptons

TL;DR

This paper investigates the production of a Higgs boson with W bosons at lepton colliders within the inverse seesaw model, revealing significant effects from heavy neutrinos that could serve as a new probe for neutrino mass models.

Contribution

First analysis of $e^+ e^- o W^+ W^- H$ production in the inverse seesaw model, highlighting potential for collider-based neutrino mass model testing.

Findings

Heavy neutrinos cause up to -38% cross-section reduction at 3 TeV.

With cuts, effects increase to -66%.

Process offers a promising new experimental probe for low-scale neutrino models.

Abstract

We present the first study of the production of a Standard Model Higgs boson at a lepton collider in association with a pair of W bosons, $e^+_{} e^-_{} \to W^+_{} W^-_{} H$, in the inverse seesaw model. Taking into account all relevant experimental and theoretical constraints, we find sizable effects due to the additional heavy neutrinos up to -38% on the total cross-section at a center-of-mass energy of 3 TeV, and even up to -66% with suitable cuts. This motivates a detailed sensitivity analysis of the process $e^+_{} e^-_{} \to W^+_{} W^-_{} H$ as it could provide a new, very competitive experimental probe of low-scale neutrino mass models.