Discriminating between Higgs Production Mechanisms via Jet Charge at the LHC

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method using jet charge asymmetry of forward jets to distinguish Higgs production mechanisms at the LHC, aiding precise measurement of Higgs couplings.

Contribution

The paper proposes a novel observable based on jet charge asymmetry to differentiate Higgs production modes, which was not previously possible.

Findings

Jet charge asymmetry can distinguish W-fusion from Z-fusion and gluon fusion.

Higgs couplings to gauge bosons can be constrained independently of other new physics effects.

Complementary to Higgs signal strength measurements at HL-LHC.

Abstract

Discriminating the Higgs production mechanisms plays a crucial role in directly measuring the couplings of Higgs to gauge bosons for probing the nature of the electroweak symmetry breaking. We propose a novel method to distinguish the Higgs production mechanisms at the LHC by utilizing the jet charge asymmetry of the two leading forward jets in Higgs plus two jets production. This novel observable provides a way to disentangle the $W$-fusion from the $Z$-fusion and gluon fusion processes for the first time, due to the electric charge correlation of the two leading jets in the events. We show that the Higgs couplings to gauge bosons can be well constrained and its conclusion does not depend on the other possible new physics effects which modify the Higgs total or partial width. We also discuss the complementary roles between the proposed jet charge asymmetry measurement and the Higgs signal strength measurements at the HL-LHC in determining the Higgs couplings.