The Virtual Diphoton Excess

Abstract

Interpreting the excesses around 750 GeV in the diphoton spectra to be the signal of a new heavy scalar decaying to photons, we point out the possibility of looking for correlated signals with virtual photons. In particular, we emphasize that the effective operator that generates the diphoton decay will also generate decays to two leptons and a photon, as well as to four leptons, independently of the new resonance couplings to $Z\gamma$ and $ZZ$. Depending on the relative sizes of these effective couplings, we show that the virtual diphoton component can make up a sizable, and sometimes dominant, contribution to the total $2\ell \gamma$ and $4\ell$ partial widths. We also discuss modifications to current experimental cuts in order to maximize the sensitivity to these virtual photon effects. Finally, we briefly comment on prospects for channels involving other Standard Model fermions as well as more exotic decay possibilities of the putative resonance.

8 pages, 6 figures; v2 figure 2 and references added

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Cited by in corpus (18)

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• Left-right asymmetry and 750 GeV diphoton excess
• Confronting a New Three-loop Seesaw Model with the 750 GeV Diphoton Excess
• Diphoton Excess and Running Couplings
• Diphoton excess at 750 GeV and LHC constraints in models with vector-like particles
• One Bump or Two Peaks? The 750 GeV Diphoton Excess and Dark Matter with a Complex Mediator
• Comments on the diphoton excess: critical reappraisal of effective field theory interpretations
• Models of LHC Diphoton Excesses Valid up to the Planck scale
• Note on Spin-2 Particle Interpretation of the 750~GeV Diphoton Excess
• Di-Photon excess in the 2HDM: hasting towards the instability and the non-perturbative regime
• Systematic Study of Diphoton Resonance at 750 GeV from Sgoldstino
• Deciphering the CP nature of the 750 GeV resonance
• Diphoton excess and VV-scattering
• Learning from the New Higgs-like Scalar before It Vanishes
• Diphoton decay for a 750 GeV scalar boson in a $SU(6)\otimes U(1{)}_X$ model
• Minimal Dilaton Model and the Diphoton Excess