Multi-Higgs Production Probes Higgs Flavor

TL;DR

This paper shows that multi-Higgs production at the LHC is highly sensitive to light-quark flavor interactions in extended Higgs models, providing new bounds and discovery prospects for such theories.

Contribution

It introduces the use of multi-Higgs production as a novel probe for light-quark flavor in Higgs sectors, setting new limits on Higgs-light quark couplings and exploring triple-Higgs production as a discovery channel.

Findings

New bounds on Higgs-down quark coupling: λ_{hdar{d}} \,\lesssim 30 λ_{hdar{d}}^{SM}

New limits on Higgs-strange quark coupling: λ_{hsar{s}} \,\lesssim 10 λ_{hsar{s}}^{SM}

Triple-Higgs production as a potential discovery channel for extended Higgs sectors.

Abstract

We demonstrate that multiple-Higgs production at the LHC is the most sensitive probe of first and second-generation quark flavor in the Higgs sector. In models where new scalars couple to light quarks, gigantic di-Higgs and even sizable tri-Higgs production rates can be obtained, which can be used to either discover or severely constrain such theories. As an example, we show that the most stringent bounds on enhanced interactions of the $125\,\textrm{GeV}$ Higgs to the down quark in extended Higgs sectors are obtained by looking for the extra Higgs bosons that provide for such enhancements using the di-Higgs and $Zh$ topologies. In this context, we set new limits on the 125 GeV Higgs coupling to the down quark as strong as $\lambda_{hd\bar{d}} \lesssim 30 \lambda_{hd\bar{d}}^{\textrm{SM}}$ -- a dramatic improvement over previously available bounds. Regarding second-generation quark flavor, we obtain new limits in the coupling to strange as strong as $\lambda_{hs\bar{s}} \lesssim 10 \lambda_{hs\bar{s}}^{\textrm{SM}}$. In addition, we show that the currently unexplored triple-Higgs production topology could be a potential discovery channel of a wide variety of extended Higgs sectors at the LHC, including not only models where extra Higgses couple to light quarks, but also popular theories where they have preferential couplings to the the top.