Phenomenology of the minimal $B-L$ extension of the Standard Model: the Higgs sector

Abstract

We investigate the phenomenology of the Higgs sector of the minimal $B-L$ extension of the Standard Model. We present results for both the foreseen energy stages of the Large Hadron Collider ($\sqrt{s}=7$ and 14 TeV). We show that in such a scenario several novel production and decay channels involving the two physical Higgs states could be accessed at such a machine. Amongst these, several Higgs signatures have very distinctive features with respect to those of other models with enlarged Higgs sector, as they involve interactions of Higgs bosons between themselves, with $Z^{\prime }$ bosons as well as with heavy neutrinos.

26 pages, 10 figures, corrected scaling in figures and related discussions, conclusions unchanged, updated acknowledgement; updated correction after PRD revision