{"arxiv_id":"2608.18506","title":"Axion-like particle at the 10 GeV scale: Higgs decays to wide jets and photons","abstract":"If axion-like particles (ALPs) exist, they may have renormalizable couplings only to the Higgs boson ($h^0$) or to fields beyond the Standard Model. An ALP $A_h$ lighter than about 60 GeV would allow the $h^0 \\to A_h A_h$ decay, with a branching fraction determined by the explicit global symmetry breaking responsible for the main contributions to the $A_h$ mass ($M_A$). New heavy fields that carry color and electric charge, such as squarks, can mediate $A_h$ decays at one loop mostly into gluons, but also into photons. Exploring LHC sensitivity to $A_h$, we show that the $h^0 \\to A_h A_h \\to (gg)(\\gamma\\gamma)$ channel leads to a diphoton resonance at $M_A$ whose production rate is consistent with a $3.5\\sigma$ excess reported by a CMS search at $M_A \\approx 13.6$ GeV. For $M_A$ of order 10 GeV, the $h^0 \\to A_h A_h \\to 4g$ cascade decay leads to two wide jets (each with 2-prong substructure) that form a resonance at 125 GeV.","primary_cat":"hep-ph","cross_cats":["hep-ex"],"submitted_at":"2026-08-19T03:52:22+00:00","latest_version":1,"source":"arxiv","source_label":"arXiv","source_url":null,"has_pdf":true,"has_source":false,"verdict":"CONDITIONAL","confidence":"MODERATE","one_line_summary":"A Higgs-portal axion-like particle with mass near 13.6 GeV, decaying into a photon pair and a gluon pair, can account for the CMS low-mass diphoton excess and predicts Higgs decays into two 2-prong wide jets.","novelty_score":6.0,"correctness_risk":"medium","formal_verification":"none","upvotes":0,"downvotes":0,"pith_score":0.0,"inbound_count":0,"_links":{"html":"https://pith.science/paper/2608.18506","verdict":"/api/v1/verdicts/2608.18506"}}