Probing the Decoupled Seesaw Scalar in Rare Higgs Decay

Abstract

The Higgs boson can mix with a singlet scalar that dynamically generates the Majorana mass of the right-handed neutrino $N_R$. We show that even a tiny mixing between the Higgs boson and a `decoupled' singlet scalar allows for Higgs-mediated pair production of $N_R$ without significant mixings between the active neutrinos and $N_R$, and thus testable at colliders via a characteristic signal of two same-sign same-flavor lepton pairs, plus missing energy. We demonstrate that this search channel is mostly background-free in $pp$-collision and can be a highly sensitive probe of the Higgs-singlet mixing at the current and future $pp$ colliders. Such channel provides a clean signal to discover the singlet scalar and explore the origin of neutrino masses.

16 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables