Resonance--Continuum Interference in Light Higgs Boson Production at a Photon Collider
Abstract
We study the effect of interference between the Standard Model Higgs boson resonance and the continuum background in the process gamma gamma -> H -> b b-bar at a photon collider. Taking into account virtual gluon exchange between the final-state quarks, we calculate the leading corrections to the height of the resonance for the case of a light (m_H < 160 GeV) Higgs boson. We find that the interference is destructive and around 0.1--0.2% of the peak height, depending on the mass of the Higgs and the scattering angle. This suppression is smaller by an order of magnitude than the anticipated experimental accuracy at a photon collider. However, the fractional suppression can be significantly larger if the Higgs coupling to b quarks is increased by physics beyond the Standard Model.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.0812.3712,
title = {Resonance--Continuum Interference in Light Higgs Boson Production at a Photon Collider},
author = {Lance J. Dixon and Yorgos Sofianatos},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0812.3712},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
14 pages, 4 figures; added references