Gluon-initiated associated production boosts Higgs physics

Understand

Analyses of boosted Higgs bosons from associated production comprise some of the main search channels for the Higgs boson at the LHC.

• The gluon-initiated $gg\to hZ$ subprocess has largely been ignored in phenomenological analyses of boosted associated production although this contribution is sizable as the $p_T$ spectrum for this process is maximised in the boosted regime due to the top quark loop threshold.
• In this paper, we discuss this contribution to boosted $pp\to hZ$ analyses in detail.
• We find there are previously overlooked modifications of Standard Model Higgs rates at the LHC which depend on the $p_T$ cuts applied and can be significant.