Uncovering the relation of a scalar resonance to the Higgs boson

Abstract

We consider the associated production of a scalar resonance with the standard model Higgs boson. We demonstrate via a realistic phenomenological analysis that couplings of such a resonance to the Higgs boson can be constrained in a meaningful way in future runs of the LHC, providing insights on its origin and its relation to the electroweak symmetry breaking sector. Moreover, the final state can provide a direct way to determine whether the new resonance is produced predominantly in gluon fusion or quark-antiquark annihilation. The analysis focuses on a resonance coming from a scalar field with vanishing vacuum expectation value and its decay to a photon pair. It can, however, be straightforwardly generalized to other scenarios.