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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

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Submission summary

Authors (as registered SciPost users): Gudrun Heinrich · Ludovic Scyboz
Submission information
Preprint Link: scipost_202403_00020v2  (pdf)
Date accepted: 2024-10-02
Date submitted: 2024-09-12 00:53
Submitted by: Scyboz, Ludovic
Submitted to: SciPost Physics Community Reports
Ontological classification
Academic field: Physics
Specialties:
  • High-Energy Physics - Phenomenology

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.

Author comments upon resubmission

Dear Editor,

We would like to resubmit our manuscript "Effective Field Theory descriptions of Higgs boson pair production" including minor revisions as requested by the referee/editor-in-charge. We thank the referee for their comments and have implemented all changes, which are described in our reply to the referee and below, into the resubmitted version.

Best regards,

The authors

List of changes

- We have added an extra column in Table 4.1. listing the corresponding total cross sections.

- On p. 12, we have modified the paragraph that was unclear, to

"Option (c) includes all terms of option (b) and in addition double insertions of dimension-6 operators. The double insertions formally are of the same order as dimension-8 operators, however they only form a small subset of dimension-8 contributions and also lack O(Λ−4) terms following the field redefinition of Eq. (2.3). Therefore, their inclusion can only be useful to get an idea of neglected higher-dimension terms, see also Ref. [83]"

- On p. 15, we have modified the paragraph about the chromomagnetic and four-tops operators, we have added a comment about their availability in ggHH_SMEFT, and have also added a Figure (3.4, on p. 22) to show the impact of the CtG operator:

"The chromomagnetic operator and four-top operators are subleading from the point of view of weakly interacting UV dynamics. These operators have been included in the ggHH SMEFT code recently [60], with their matrix elements being considered at LO QCD. Combinations with the already presented NLO QCD calculation are possible and follow the power counting rules outlined in Ref. [60]. The effect of the Wilson coefficient CtG on the SM result at LO QCD, using current constraints of Ref. [86], is illustrated in Fig. 3.4. Considering the chromomagnetic operator and the four-top operators in isolation is delicate since the independence on the scheme to continue γ5 to D space-time dimensions can only be shown for a combination of these operators [87]."

- On p. 28, we have added a comment about extensions of the reweighting to include more differential information as a potential alternative to improve the fit description of the Higgs transverse momentum:

"An alternative would be to add an additional variable to the reweighting, such as the cosine of the angle between one of the Higgs bosons and the beam in the CM frame, which is a suggested option for di-Higgs production via gluon-gluon fusion. However, this variable is expected to be flat for many BSM models. This can be understood from a partial wave analysis: the leading partial wave is independent of cosθ, and most BSM models are not expected to suppress the leading partial wave substantially for this process. Therefore such a double differential description is not expected to improve the reweighting."

- We have also updated the references with the correct published version for references which have been published in the meantime (i.e. Refs. [29], [87])

Published as SciPost Phys. Comm. Rep. 2 (2024)

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