Higgs phenomenology as a probe of sterile neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper explores how Higgs boson decays can be used to detect and constrain sterile neutrinos within an effective field theory framework, offering new experimental avenues at the LHC.

Contribution

It introduces novel Higgs decay channels as probes for sterile neutrino gauge interactions, expanding the experimental search strategies beyond current limits.

Findings

Higgs phenomenology can constrain sterile neutrino gauge interactions.

Proposed new Higgs decay channels with clean signatures.

Potential for future LHC searches to detect sterile neutrinos.

Abstract

Physics beyond the Standard Model can manifest itself as both new light states and heavy degrees of freedom. In this paper, we assume that the former comprise only a sterile neutrino, $N$. Therefore, the most agnostic description of the new physics is given by an effective field theory built upon the Standard Model fields as well as $N$. We show that Higgs phenomenology provides a sensitive and potentially crucial tool to constrain effective gauge interactions of sterile neutrinos, not yet probed by current experiments. In parallel, this motivates a range of new Higgs decay channels with clean signatures as candidates for the next LHC runs, including $h\to \gamma+p_T^\text{miss}$ and $h\to \gamma\gamma+p_T^\text{miss}$.