Study of Higgs boson production and its bb decay in {gamma}-{gamma} processes in proton-nucleus collisions at the LHC

Journal Article · Fri Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2010 · Physical Review. D, Particles Fields

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PHYSREVD.81.014004· OSTI ID:21408953

D'Enterria, David ^[1]; Lansberg, Jean-Philippe ^[2]

---

1. ICC-UB and ICREA, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028 Barcelona, Catalonia (Spain)
2. Centre de Physique Theorique, Ecole Polytechnique, CNRS, 91128 Palaiseau (France)

We explore for the first time the possibilities to measure an intermediate-mass (m{sub H}=115-140 GeV/c{sup 2}) standard model Higgs boson in electromagnetic proton-lead (pPb) interactions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) via its bb decay. Using equivalent Weizsaecker-Williams photon fluxes and Higgs effective field theory for the coupling {gamma}{gamma}{yields}H, we obtain a leading-order cross section of the order of 0.3 pb for exclusive Higgs production in elastic (pPb{yields}{sup {gamma}{gamma}X}HPb) and semielastic (pPb{yields}{sup {gamma}{gamma}X}HPb) processes at {radical}(s{sub NN})=8.8 TeV. After applying various kinematics cuts to remove the main backgrounds ({gamma}{gamma}{yields}bb and misidentified {gamma}{gamma}{yields}qq events), we find that a Higgs boson with m{sub H}=120 GeV/c{sup 2} could be observed in the bb channel with a 3{sigma} significance integrating 300 pb{sup -1} with an upgraded pA luminosity of 10{sup 31} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}. We also provide for the first time semielastic Higgs cross sections, along with elastic tt cross sections, for electromagnetic pp, pA and AA collisions at the LHC.

• OSTI ID: 21408953
• Journal Information: Physical Review. D, Particles Fields, Vol. 81, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevD.81.014004; (c) 2010 The American Physical Society; ISSN 0556-2821
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS
73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS
CERN LHC
COLLISIONS
COUPLING
CROSS SECTIONS
HIGGS BOSONS
HIGGS MODEL
ION-ATOM COLLISIONS
LEAD
LUMINOSITY
MASS
PARTICLE DECAY
PHOTONS
PROTON-NUCLEON INTERACTIONS
PROTONS
STANDARD MODEL
TEV RANGE 01-10
ACCELERATORS
ATOM COLLISIONS
BARYON-BARYON INTERACTIONS
BARYONS
BOSONS
CYCLIC ACCELERATORS
DECAY
ELEMENTARY PARTICLES
ELEMENTS
ENERGY RANGE
FERMIONS
FIELD THEORIES
GRAND UNIFIED THEORY
HADRON-HADRON INTERACTIONS
HADRONS
INTERACTIONS
ION COLLISIONS
MASSLESS PARTICLES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
METALS
NUCLEON-NUCLEON INTERACTIONS
NUCLEONS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PARTICLE INTERACTIONS
PARTICLE MODELS
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
POSTULATED PARTICLES
QUANTUM FIELD THEORY
STORAGE RINGS
SYNCHROTRONS
TEV RANGE
UNIFIED GAUGE MODELS