Drell-Yan constraints on charged scalars: a weak isospin perspective

TL;DR

This paper uses LHC data to constrain charged scalar particles by analyzing their production via Drell-Yan processes and interpreting the results through weak isospin quantum numbers, providing model-independent bounds.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to derive bounds on charged scalar branching ratios directly from experimental data based on weak isospin, applicable across various models.

Findings

Established bounds on charged scalar branching ratios from LHC data.

Validated the approach in extended Higgs sector models.

Analyzed singly and doubly charged scalars across different isospin scenarios.

Abstract

Charged scalars appear in many motivated extensions beyond the Standard Model. We analyze the constraints on charged scalar pair production via the Drell-Yan process at the Large Hadron Collider and interpret them in terms of weak isospin quantum numbers. Leveraging the experimental limits from existing LHC data and phenomenological recast analyses, we place bounds on the branching ratio of the charged scalar, as a function of its mass, electric charge, and isospin. This approach enables to determine limits on the branching ratios directly from experimental data, without appealing to a specific model. We provide a detailed analysis for singly and doubly charged scalars across various weak isospin scenarios, focusing on decays into leptonic and bosonic final states, and validate this approach in extended Higgs sectors such as the Higgs triplet model and Georgi-Machacek model.