Distinguishing the Higgs Boson from the Dilaton at the Large Hadron Collider

Journal Article · Fri Mar 21 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Physical Review Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVLETT.100.111802· OSTI ID:21123760

Goldberger, Walter D; Skiba, Witold ^[1]; Grinstein, Benjamin ^[2]

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1. Department of Physics, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06520 (United States)
2. Physics Department, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093 (United States)

It is likely that the LHC will observe a color- and charge-neutral scalar whose decays are consistent with those of the standard model (SM) Higgs boson. The Higgs interpretation of such a discovery is not the only possibility. For example, electroweak symmetry breaking could be triggered by a spontaneously broken, nearly conformal sector. The spectrum of states at the electroweak scale would then contain a narrow scalar resonance, the pseudo-Goldstone boson of conformal symmetry breaking, with Higgs-boson-like properties. If the conformal sector is strongly coupled, this pseudodilaton may be the only new state accessible at high energy colliders. We discuss the prospects for distinguishing this mode from a minimal Higgs boson at the LHC and ILC. The main discriminants between the two scenarios are (i) cubic self-interactions and (ii) a potential enhancement of couplings to massless SM gauge bosons.

• OSTI ID: 21123760
• Journal Information: Physical Review Letters, Journal Name: Physical Review Letters Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 100; ISSN 0031-9007; ISSN PRLTAO
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
CERN LHC
COLOR MODEL
CONFORMAL INVARIANCE
GOLDSTONE BOSONS
HIGGS BOSONS
HIGGS MODEL
STANDARD MODEL
SYMMETRY BREAKING