The correlation matrix of Higgs rates at the LHC

Understand

The imperfect knowledge of the Higgs boson decay rates and cross sections at the LHC constitutes a critical systematic uncertainty in the study of the Higgs boson properties.

• We show that the full covariance matrix between the Higgs rates can be determined from the most elementary sources of uncertainty by a direct application of probability theory.
• We evaluate the error magnitudes and full correlation matrix on the set of Higgs cross sections and branching ratios at $\sqrt{s}=7$, $8$, $13$ and $14$ TeV, which are provided in ancillary files.
• The impact of this correlation matrix on the global fits is illustrated with the latest $7$+$8$ TeV Higgs dataset.