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Effective Field Theory descriptions of Higgs boson pair production
by Lina Alasfar, Luca Cadamuro, Christina Dimitriadi, Arnaud Ferrari, Ramona Gröber, Gudrun Heinrich, Tom Ingebretsen Carlson, Jannis Lang, Serhat Ördek, Laura Pereira Sánchez, Ludovic Scyboz, Jörgen Sjölin
Submission summary
| Authors (as registered SciPost users): | Ludovic Scyboz |
| Submission information | |
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| Preprint Link: | scipost_202403_00020v1 (pdf) |
| Date submitted: | 2024-03-14 01:26 |
| Submitted by: | Scyboz, Ludovic |
| Submitted to: | SciPost Physics Community Reports |
| Ontological classification | |
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| Academic field: | Physics |
| Specialties: |
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Abstract
Higgs boson pair production is traditionally considered to be of particular interest for a measurement of the trilinear Higgs self-coupling. Yet it can offer insights into other couplings as well, since – in an effective field theory (EFT) parameterisation of potential new physics – both the production cross section and kinematical properties of the Higgs boson pair depend on various other Wilson coefficients of EFT operators. This note summarises the ongoing efforts related to the development of EFT tools for Higgs boson pair production in gluon fusion, and provides recommendations for the use of distinct EFT parameterisations in the Higgs boson pair production process. This document also outlines where further efforts are needed and provides a detailed analysis of theoretical uncertainties. Additionally, benchmark scenarios are updated. We also re-derive a parameterisation of the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections in terms of the EFT Wilson coefficients both for the total cross section and the distribution in the invariant mass of the Higgs boson pair, providing for the first time also the covariance matrix. A reweighting procedure making use of the newly derived coefficients is validated, which can be used to significantly speed up experimental analyses.
Current status:
Reports on this Submission
Strengths
1-Summarises concisely EFT aspects of Higgs pair production
2-It presents the relevant codes.
3-Provides some guidelines for associated theoretical uncertainties
Weaknesses
1-Reweighting procedure suggested is not precise enough.
2-Some clarifications would help at some points in the text.
Report
I have the following comments:
What are the total cross-sections predicted by the various benchmarks points? Aren't some of these already excluded by the experimental bounds on the total HH cross-section?
I am not sure I follow the logic behind modifying the benchmarks by changing Lambda. This is not rescaling the EFT contribution by an overall factors (unless one only looks at the linear contribution only). This will also change its shape. Is this the intention?
On page 12, the authors suggest that option c) contains a subset of operators contributing at dim-8, but option c) only has dimension-6 operators. Are they referring to the possible mixing of dimension-6 double insertions with dimension-8 operators?
The reweighting should be done at a PS point by PS point basis, using the corresponding amplitudes. A reweighting based on just the invariant mass will not be precise enough . This becomes obvious in fig. 4.3. Is a more precise reweighting not an option?
Looking at 4.1, it's clear that one just needs 23 event samples, each one corresponding to a different coupling combination. Then results for any set of the couplings can be extracted by correctly combining those samples. Is it not possible to just produce those 23 samples and thus avoid the need for any reweighting?
Requested changes
In addition to addressing the comments above:
1-I would perhaps rephrase the sentence about SMEFTsim and SmeftFR. As these are tree-level models they cannot be used for HH production at all (even the infinite top mass limit is not available if the effective gghh vertex is not included).
2-I would suggest adding some results for the chromomagnetic operator given that some of the authors have now included this operator to the Powheg implementation. This would complete the SMEFT computation.
Recommendation
Ask for minor revision