State-of-the-art electroweak Higgs boson pair production in association with two jets at the LHC in the Standard Model and beyond

TL;DR

This paper compares advanced simulation tools for Higgs boson pair production via vector boson fusion at the LHC, analyzing their predictions within the Standard Model and beyond, including effects of anomalous couplings.

Contribution

It provides a systematic comparison of two leading simulation tools for VBF Higgs pair production, including their performance with anomalous couplings and at various energies.

Findings

Consistent cross section predictions between tools within uncertainties

Detailed analysis of the VBF approximation validity

Impact of anomalous couplings on production rates and distributions

Abstract

We present a systematic comparison of two state-of-the-art tools for the simulation of Higgs boson pair production via vector boson fusion (VBF) as implemented in the Monte-Carlo tools GoSam+Whizard and the POWHEG-BOX. Cross sections and distributions are provided within the Standard Model and beyond, within scenarios typical for experimental physics analyses, and for a range of energies of relevance to the LHC and its upcoming high luminosity phase. We further perform a detailed study of the so-called VBF approximation, in particular in the presence of anomalous Higgs boson couplings.