Fiducial cross sections for the lepton-pair-plus-photon decay mode in Higgs production up to NNLO QCD

TL;DR

This paper calculates the impact of NNLO QCD corrections on the fiducial cross sections of the rare Higgs decay to a lepton pair and photon, providing insights relevant for experimental measurements at the LHC.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed analysis of NNLO QCD effects on the Higgs decay to lepton pair plus photon, highlighting their significance for experimental studies.

Findings

NNLO QCD corrections are sizeable for this decay mode.

Corrections are mostly uniform across Higgs-related kinematic variables.

Distinctive features appear in the decay products' kinematics.

Abstract

The rare three-body decay of a Higgs boson to a lepton-antilepton pair and a photon is starting to become experimentally accessible at the LHC. We investigate how higher-order QCD corrections to the dominant gluon-fusion production process impact on the fiducial cross sections in this specific Higgs decay mode for electrons and muons. Corrections up to NNLO QCD are found to be sizeable. They are generally uniform in kinematical variables related to the Higgs boson, but display several distinctive features in the kinematics of its individual decay products.