Why detect forward muons at a muon collider

TL;DR

This paper explores how detecting forward muons at a muon collider can enable detailed studies of Higgs properties, new heavy particles, and vector boson interactions, guiding detector design.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of forward muon detection opportunities, emphasizing its importance for Higgs measurements, new particle searches, and quantum interference studies.

Findings

Forward muon detection enhances Higgs property measurements.

Detection is crucial for searching invisible new particles.

Angular correlations help characterize vector boson processes.

Abstract

We survey the opportunities offered by the detection of the forward muons that accompany the creation of neutral effective vector bosons at a muon collider, in different kinematic regimes. Vectors with relatively low energy produce the Higgs boson and the extended muon angular coverage enables studies of the Higgs properties, such as the measurement of the inclusive production cross section and of the branching ratio to invisible final states. New heavy particles could be produced by vectors of higher energy, through Higgs portal interactions. If the new particles are invisible, the detection of the forward muons is essential in order to search for this scenario. The angular correlations of the forward muons are sensitive to the quantum interference between the vector boson helicity amplitudes and can be exploited for the characterisation of vector boson scattering and fusion processes. This is illustrated by analysing the CP properties of the Higgs coupling to the Z boson. Our findings provide a physics case and a set of benchmarks for the design of a dedicated forward muon detector.