Resonance-continuum interference in the di-photon Higgs signal at the LHC
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A low mass Standard Model Higgs boson should be visible at the Large Hadron Collider through its production via gluon-gluon fusion and its decay to two photons. We compute the interference of this resonant process, gg -> H -> gamma gamma, with the continuum QCD background, gg -> gamma gamma induced by quark loops. Helicity selection rules suppress the effect, which is dominantly due to the imaginary part of the two-loop gg -> gamma gamma scattering amplitude. The interference is destructive, but only of order 5% in the Standard Model, which is still below the 10-20% present accuracy of the total cross section prediction. We comment on the potential size of such effects in other Higgs models.
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Cited by 1 Pith paper
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Interference effects in gluon-fusion Higgs boson production
Higher-order perturbative calculations find destructive signal-background interference in gg to H to gamma gamma and Z gamma, lowering the resonant production rate by approximately 1.6% and 3%.
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