Inferring the nature of the boson at 125-126 GeV

Abstract

The presence of a bosonic resonance near 125 GeV has been firmly established at the Large Hadron Collider. Understanding the exact nature of this boson is a priority. The task now is to verify whether the boson is indeed the scalar Higgs as proposed in the Standard Model of particle physics, or something more esoteric as proposed in the plethora of extensions to the Standard Model. This requires a verification that the boson is a $J^{PC}=0^{++}$ state with couplings precisely as predicted by the Standard Model. Since a non Standard Model boson can in some cases mimic the Standard Model Higgs in its couplings to gauge bosons, it is essential to rule out any anomalous behavior in its gauge couplings. We present a step by step methodology to determine the properties of this resonance without making any assumptions about its couplings. We present the analysis in terms of uni-angular distributions which lead to angular asymmetries that allow for the extraction of the couplings of the 125-126 GeV resonance to Z bosons. We show analytically and numerically, that these asymmetries can unambiguously confirm whether the new boson is indeed the Standard Model Higgs boson.

17 Pages, 6 figures; new author and a subsection "Numerical study of the uni-angular distributions" added, several changes made for further clarification. Conclusions unchanged. Version to appear in Phys. Rev. D

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• Higgs Quantum Numbers in Weak Boson Fusion
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• Ascertaining the spin for new resonances decaying into tau+ tau- at Hadron Colliders
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• New Observables for CP Violation in Higgs Decays
• Nonstandard Higgs Couplings from Angular Distributions in $h\to Z{\ell }^{+}{\ell }^{-}$
• Beyond Higgs Couplings: Probing the Higgs with Angular Observables at Future $e^{+}{e}^{-}$ Colliders
• Associated Production Evidence against Higgs Impostors and Anomalous Couplings
• Extracting Effective Higgs Couplings in the Golden Channel
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• A note on Higgs decays into $Z$ boson and $J/\Psi ({\rm Y})$
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• Probing New Physics in Higgs Couplings to Fermions using an Angular Analysis
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• Angular asymmetries as a probe for anomalous contributions to HZZ vertex at the LHC
• Decays of a neutral particle with zero spin and arbitrary CP parity into two off-mass-shell Z bosons
• Disentangling the Spin-Parity of a Resonance via the Gold-Plated Decay Mode
• Measuring properties of a Heavy Higgs boson in the $H\to ZZ\to 4\ell$ decay
• Anomalous $H\to ZZ\to 4\ell$ decay and its interference effects at the LHC
• The Higgs-like boson spin from the center-edge asymmetry in the diphoton channel