We examine a scenario where the Higgs is part of an approximate conformal field theory, and has a scaling dimension greater than one. Such an unparticle Higgs (or Unhiggs) can still break electroweak symmetry and unitarize WW scattering, but its gauge couplings are suppressed. An Unhiggs model has a reduced sensitivity of the weak scale to the cutoff, and can thus provide a solution to the little hierarchy problem.
We explore the consequences of an electroweak symmetry breaking sector which exhibits approximately scale invariant dynamics -- i.e., nontrivial fixed point behavior, as in unparticle models. One can think of an unHiggs as a composite Higgs boson with a continuous mass distribution. We find it convenient to represent the unHiggs in terms of a Kallen-Lehmann spectral function, from which it is simple to verify the generation of gauge boson and fermion masses, and unitarization of WW scattering. We show that a spectral function with broad support, which corresponds to approximate fixed point beh…
We compute one-loop corrections to the S and T parameters in the Unhiggs scenario. In that scenario, the Standard Model Higgs is replaced by a non-local object, called the Unhiggs, whose spectral function displays a continuum above the mass gap. The Unhiggs propagator has effectively the same UV properties as the Standard Model Higgs propagator, which implies that loop corrections to the electroweak precision observables are finite and calculable. We show that the Unhiggs is consistent with electroweak precision tests when its mass gap is at the weak scale; in fact, it then mimics a light SM H…
Recent measurements by the ATLAS and CMS experiments have excluded the Standard Model Higgs boson in the high mass region, even if it is produced with a significantly smaller cross section than expected. The bounds are dominated by the non-observation of a signal in the clean gold-plated mode $h\to ZZ\to 4\ell$ and, hence, are directly related to the special role of the Higgs in electroweak symmetry breaking. A smaller cross section in comparison to the Standard Model is expected if the Higgs is realized as an unparticle in the Unhiggs scenario. With the LHC probing $σ/σ^{SM}<1$, we can theref…
Matter-Higgs unification in string-inspired supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories predicts the existence of colored states in the Higgs multiplets and calls for two extra generations of Higgs-like fields ('unhiggses'). If these states are present near the TeV scale, gauge-coupling unification points to the existence of two distinct scales, 10^15 GeV where right-handed neutrinos and a Pati-Salam symmetry appear, and 10^18 GeV where complete unification is achieved. Baryon-number conservation, while not guaranteed, can naturally emerge from an underlying flavor symmetry. Collider signatures and …
Matter-Higgs unification in string-inspired supersymmetric Grand Unified Theories predicts the existence of colored states in the Higgs multiplets and calls for two extra generations of Higgs-like fields ('unhiggses'). If these states are present near the TeV scale, gauge-coupling unification points to the existence of two distinct scales, 10^15 GeV where right-handed neutrinos and a Pati-Salam symmetry appear, and 10^18 GeV where complete unification is achieved. Baryon-number conservation, while not guaranteed, can naturally emerge from an underlying flavor symmetry. Collider signatures and …
Recently obtained NNLO exact corrections for Higgs and Pseudoscalar Higgs boson production in hadron colliders are compared with approximate ones. As shown before, it is found that there is a range of a proper variable where these corrections differ little.
The properties of the Higgs boson, h(125), observed in LHC data are consistent with Standard Model predictions. Consequently, if additional Higgs bosons are present, then the direction of h(125) in field space must be approximately aligned with the direction of the Higgs vacuum expectation value. One way to achieve approximate Higgs alignment is in the decoupling limit, where all additional Higgs scalars are significantly heavier than the h(125). In this presentation, the viability of approximate Higgs alignment without decoupling is addressed.
We find the approximate solutions for the Higgs masses and couplings in the NMSSM with exact and softly broken PQ--symmetry. The obtained solutions indicate that there exists a mass hierarchy in the Higgs spectrum which is caused by the stability of the physical vacuum.
The 2HDM possesses a neutral scalar interaction eigenstate whose tree-level properties coincide with the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson. In light of the LHC Higgs data which suggests that the observed Higgs boson is SM-like, it follows that the mixing of the SM Higgs interaction eigenstate with the other neutral scalar interaction eigenstates of the 2HDM should be suppressed, corresponding to the so-called Higgs alignment limit. The exact Higgs alignment limit can arise naturally due to a global symmetry of the scalar potential. If this symmetry is softly broken, then the Higgs alignment limi…
We combine NLO predictions with full top-quark mass dependence with approximate NNLO predictions for Higgs-boson pair production in gluon fusion, including the possibility to vary coupling parameters within a non-linear Effective Field Theory framework containing five anomalous couplings for this process. We study the impact of the anomalous couplings on various observables, and present Higgs-pair invariant-mass distributions at seven benchmark points characterising different $m_{hh}$ shape types. We also provide numerical coefficients for the approximate NNLO cross section as a function of th…
I present approximate next-to-next-to-leading-order (aNNLO) total and differential cross sections for charged Higgs production in association with a top quark at LHC energies. The aNNLO results for the process $bg \rightarrow tH^-$ are derived from next-to-next-to-leading-logarithm (NNLL) resummation of soft-gluon corrections. Scale and parton-distribution uncertainties for the cross sections are shown. The top-quark transverse-momentum and rapidity distributions are also calculated.
We embed Two Higgs Doublet Models (2HDMs) in the Froggatt Nielsen (FN) framework. We find that the approximate FN symmetry predicts i) approximate Natural Flavor Conservation (NFC) of Types II or IV in the Yukawa sector, and ii) approximate Peccei-Quinn (PQ) symmetry in the scalar sector. We discuss the phenomenological consequences of these features.
With discovery of the 125 GeV boson $h^0$, the existence of a second doublet is very plausible. We show that the "alignment" phenomenon, that $h^0$ is found to resemble closely the Standard Model Higgs boson, may correspond to Higgs quartic couplings $η_i$ that are ${\cal O}(1)$ in strength. If the exotic bosons of the second doublet possess extra top Yukawa couplings, which are the least constrained by data, such a two Higgs doublet model could drive electroweak baryogenesis, as well as further "protect" the apparent alignment. The exotic Higgs bosons can be sub-TeV in mass while remaining we…
We argue that the consistent implementation of the multiple point principle (MPP) in the general non-supersymmetric two Higgs doublet model (2HDM) can lead to a set of approximate global custodial symmetries that ensure CP conservation in the Higgs sector and the absence of flavour changing neutral currents (FCNC) in the considered model. In particular the existence of a large set of degenerate vacua at some high energy scale $Λ$ caused by the MPP can result in approximate U(1) and Z(2) symmetries that suppress FCNC and CP--violating interactions in the 2HDM. We explore the renormalisation gro…
We study the soft and collinear (SV) contributions to inclusive Higgs-boson production in gluon-gluon fusion at four loops. Using recent progress for the quark and gluon form factors and Mellin moments of splitting functions, we are able to complete the soft-gluon enhanced contributions exactly in the limit of a large number of colours, and to a sufficiently accurate numerical accuracy for QCD. The four-loop SV contributions increase the QCD cross section at 14 TeV by 2.7% and 0.2% for the standard choices mu_R=m_H and mu_R=m_H/2 of the renormalization scale, and reduce the scale uncertainty t…
The single-logarithmic enhancement of the physical kernel for Higgs production by gluon-gluon fusion in the heavy top-quark limit is employed to derive the leading so far unknown contributions, ln^{5,4,3}(1-z), to the N^3LO coefficient function in the threshold expansion. Also using knowledge from Higgs-exchange DIS to estimate the remaining terms not vanishing for z = m_H^2/s^hat -> 1, these results are combined with the recently completed soft + virtual contributions to provide an uncertainty band for the complete N^3LO correction. For the 2008 MSTW parton distributions these N^3LO contribut…
In multi-Higgs models, the properties of one neutral scalar state approximate those of the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson in a limit where the corresponding scalar field is roughly aligned in field space with the scalar doublet vacuum expectation value. In a scenario of alignment without decoupling, a SM-like Higgs boson can be accompanied by additional scalar states whose masses are of a similar order of magnitude. In the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM), alignment without decoupling can be achieved due to an accidental cancellation of tree-level and radiative loop-level effects.…
In the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (NMSSM), the presence of light pseudoscalars can have a dramatic effect on the decays of the Standard Model-like Higgs boson. These pseudoscalars are naturally light if supersymmetry breaking preserves an approximate U(1)_R symmetry, spontaneously broken when the Higgs bosons take on their expectation values. We investigate two classes of theories that possess such an approximate U(1)_R at the mediation scale: deformations of gauge and gaugino mediation. In the models we consider, we find two disjoint classes of phenomenologically allowed pa…
The first results on the searches of the Higgs boson appeared this Summer from the LHC and Tevatron groups, and has been recently backed up by the ATLAS and CMS experiments taking data at CERN's LHC. Even though the excitement that this particle has been detected is still premature, the new data constrain the mass of the lightest Higgs boson $m_{h^0}$ to a very narrow 120-140 GeV region with a possible peak at approximately 125 GeV. In this communication we shortly present the Higgs sector in a minimal supergravity model with broken R-parity. Imposing the constraint on $m_{h^0}$ we show that t…
The Higgs boson decay channel, $H\toγγ$, is one of the most important channels for probing the properties of the Higgs boson. In the paper, we reanalyze its decay width by using the QCD corrections up to $α_s^4$-order level. The principle of maximum conformality has been adopted to achieve a precise pQCD prediction without conventional renormalization scheme-and-scale ambiguities. By taking the Higgs mass as the one given by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations, i.e. $M_{H}=125.09\pm0.21\pm0.11$ GeV, we obtain $Γ(H\to γγ)|_{\rm LHC}=9.364^{+0.076}_{-0.075}$ KeV.
We present predictions for the thrust distribution in hadronic decays of the Higgs boson at the next-to-leading order and the approximate next-to-next-to-leading order. The approximate NNLO corrections are derived from a factorization formula in the soft/collinear phase-space regions. We find large corrections, especially for the gluon channel. The scale variations at the lowest orders tend to underestimate the genuine higher order contributions. The results of this paper is therefore necessary to control the perturbative uncertainties of the theoretical predictions. We also discuss on possibl…
Since the discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider, a future electron-position collider has been proposed for precisely studying its properties. We investigate the production of the Higgs boson at such an $e^+e^-$ collider associated with a $Z$ boson, and calculate for the first time the mixed QCD-electroweak corrections to the total cross sections. We provide an approximate analytic formula for the cross section and show that it reproduces the exact numeric results rather well for collider energies up to 350 GeV. We also provide numeric results for $\sqrt{s}=500$ GeV, where t…
We construct an approximate expression for the cross section for Higgs production in gluon fusion at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) in $α_s$ with finite top mass. We argue that an accurate approximation can be constructed by exploiting the analiticity of the Mellin space cross section, and the information on its singularity structure coming from large N (soft gluon, Sudakov) and small N (high energy, BFKL) all order resummations. We support our argument with an explicit comparison of the approximate and the exact expressions up to the highest (NNLO) order at which the latter a…
We show that if there are only two Higgs doublets in the supersymmetric standard model, large $\tanβ$ requires a fine tuning in the parameters of the Lagrangian of order ($1/\tanβ$), which cannot be explained by any approximate symmetry. With an extended Higgs sector, large $\tanβ$ can be natural. We give an explicit example with four doublets in which it is possible to achieve large $\tanβ$ as a result of an approximate symmetry, without any light superpartners. The approximate symmetry can be extended to explain all the hierarchies in the quark mass matrix.
We present new variants of the Two Higgs-Doublet Model where all Yukawa couplings with physical Higgs bosons are controlled by the quark mixing matrices of both chiralities, as well as, in one case, the ratio between the two scalar doublets' vacuum expectation values. We obtain these by imposing approximate symmetries on the Lagrangian which, in one of the cases, clearly reveals the model to be the electroweak remnant of the Minimal Left-Right Symmetric Model. We also argue for the benefits of the bidoublet notation in the Two Higgs-Doublet Model context for uncovering new models.
We examine the constraints on the two Higgs doublet model (2HDM) due to the stability of the scalar potential and absence of Landau poles at energy scales below the Planck scale. We employ the most general 2HDM that incorporates an approximately Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson with a flavor aligned Yukawa sector to eliminate potential tree-level Higgs-mediated flavor changing neutral currents. Using basis independent techniques, we exhibit robust regimes of the 2HDM parameter space with a 125 GeV SM-like Higgs boson that is stable and perturbative up to the Planck scale. Implications for the h…
An approximate expression for the inclusive Higgs production cross section in gluon fusion at NNNLO in QCD with finite top mass is presented. We argue that an accurate approximation can be constructed combining (and improving) the large- and small-z behaviours of the partonic cross section, which are both known to all orders from soft-gluon (Sudakov) and high-energy (BFKL) resummations, respectively. For a 125 GeV Higgs at LHC at 8 TeV, we find an increase of about 6-13% with respect to the NNLO inclusive cross section for the conventional scale μ_R=m_H/2, suggesting that higher order QCD corr…
In this note we present a little Higgs model that has custodial SU(2) as an approximate symmetry. This theory is a simple modification of the ``Minimal Moose'' with SO(5) global symmetries protecting the Higgs mass. This allows for a simple limit where TeV physics makes small contributions to precision electroweak observables. The spectrum of particles and their couplings to Standard Model fields are studied in detail. At low energies this model has two Higgs doublets and it favours a light Higgs from precision electroweak bounds, though for different reasons than in the Standard Model. The li…
Among the O(alpha_s tan beta) contributions to the Wilson coefficients C_7 and C_8, relevant for the decay bar{B} -> X_s gamma, those induced by two-loop diagrams with charged-Higgs-boson exchange and squark-gluino corrections are calculated in supersymmetric models at large tan beta. The calculation of the corresponding Feynman integrals is exact, unlike in previous studies that are valid when the typical supersymmetric scale M_SUSY is sufficiently larger than the electroweak scale m_weak (\sim m_W, m_t) and the mass of the charged Higgs boson m_{H^\pm}. Therefore, the results presented here …
In two Higgs doublet models (2HDM), there exists an interesting possibility, the hidden light Higgs scenario, that the discovered SM-like Higgs boson is the heavier \textit{CP}-even Higgs boson $H^0$ and the lighter \textit{CP}-even $h^0$ has not been observed yet in any experiment. We study the current status of this scenario in Types I, II, X, and Y, through the scans of the 2HDM parameters with all relevant theoretical and experimental constraints. We employ not only the most up-to-date Higgs signal strength measurements with the feed-down effects, but also all the available LHC exclusion l…
We update our estimate of the cross section for Higgs production in gluon fusion at next-to-next-to-next-to-leading order (N$^3$LO) in $α_s$ in view of the recent full computation of the result in the soft limit for infinite top mass, which determines a previously unknown constant. We briefly discuss the phenomenological implications. Results are available through the updated version of the ggHiggs code.
We investigate basic consequences of the assumption that the mass scale of the perturbative sector responsible for the spontaneous symmetry breaking is generated dynamically in a theory with a large UV scale. It is assumed that in addition to an elementary scalar there exists an additional scalar, a modulus, which controls the dynamical hierarchy of scales in the manner similar to that of supersymmetric gaugino condensation. It is shown that a light degree of freedom appears that couples to the gauge bosons and to charged fermions in a specific way which is different from the couplings of the …
Simple symmetry arguments applied to the third generation lead to a prediction: there exist new sequential Higgs doublets with masses of order $\lesssim 5 $ TeV, with approximately universal Higgs-Yukawa coupling constants, $g\sim 1$. This is calibrated by the known Higgs boson mass, the top quark Higgs-Yukawa coupling, and the $b$-quark mass. A new massive weak-isodoublet, $H_b$, coupled to the $b$-quark with $g\sim 1$ is predicted, and may be accessible to the LHC at $13$ TeV, and definitively at the energy upgraded LHC of $26$ TeV. The extension to leptons generates a new $H_τ$ and a possib…
It has been recently pointed out that the polarization BICEP2 results are consistent with the identification of an inflaton mass m \simeq 10^{13} GeV with the SUSY breaking scale in an MSSM with a fine-tuned SM Higgs. This identification leads to a Higgs mass m_h \simeq 126 GeV, consistent with LHC measurements. Here we propose that this naturally suggests to identify the inflaton with the heavy MSSM Higgs system. The fact that the extrapolated Higgs coupling lambda_{SM}\simeq 0 at scales below the Planck scale suggests the Higgs degrees of freedom could be associated to a Wilson line or D-bra…
We consider a strongly interacting twin Higgs (SITH) model where an ultraviolet completion of twin Higgs mechanism is realized by a strongly coupled approximately scale invariant theory. Besides the Standard Model (SM) and twin sectors, the low energy effective theory contains a relatively light scalar called a dilaton --- the pseudo Goldstone boson of spontaneously broken scale invariance. The dilaton provides a unique portal between the SM and twin sectors whose phenomenology could provide an important probe of the twin Higgs mechanism. As a concrete example, we consider a holographic twin H…
We present a general formalism for analyzing supersymmetric models where the Higgs sector directly couples to the messengers of supersymmetry breaking. Such Higgs-messenger interactions are strongly motivated by the discovery of a Higgs boson near 125 GeV, but they also raise the specter of the mu/B_mu and A/m_H^2 problems. Using our formalism, we identify new avenues to solving these problems through strong dynamics in the messenger sector or hidden sector. Although our formalism is entirely general, we show how it reproduces familiar results in two simplifying limits: one where the hidden se…
We study the implications of the LHC diphoton and Z+photon Higgs signals on the Higgs triplet model with Y=0. We discuss three different scenarios: (i) the observed boson is the light Higgs boson $h$; (ii) it is the heavy Higgs boson $H$; (iii) the observed signal is from the almost degenerate $h$ and $H$. We find that the inclusive Higgs diphoton rates in the first two scenarios can be enhanced or suppressed compared to the SM value, which can respectively fit the ATLAS and CMS diphoton data within $1σ$ range. The inclusive $ZZ^*$ rates are suppressed, which are outside $1σ$ range of ATLAS da…
I present recent work on gravitational waves (GWs) from a generic Standard Model-like effective potential for the electroweak phase transition. We derive a semi-analytic expression for the approximate tunneling temperature, and analytic and approximate expressions for the two GW parameters $α$ and $β$. A quick summary of our analysis and general results, as well as a list of some specific models which easily fit into this framework, are presented. The work presented here has been done in collaboration with Stefano Profumo (arXiv:0911.0687).