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Extracting Higgs boson couplings from LHC data

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M. Duhrssen, S. Heinemeyer, H. Logan, D. Rainwater, G. Weiglein, D. Zeppenfeld

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology · Submitted 29 Jun 2004 · 46 references

Pith's verdict: The methodological move is real and cheap — one upper bound on the HVV couplings turns LHC rates into absolute couplings — but every quoted precision rests on 2004-era error estimates the authors themselves call provisional.

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arXiv IDhep-ph/0406323 (version 1)
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CitationD. Rainwater, D. Zeppenfeld, G. Weiglein, H. Logan, M. Duhrssen, S. Heinemeyer. "Extracting Higgs boson couplings from LHC data." arXiv:hep-ph/0406323 (2004). https://pith.science/paper/FAE5VZHK
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The paper

The paper claims

A single theoretical bound — that the Higgs couplings to W and Z cannot exceed their Standard Model values — is enough to convert LHC rate measurements into absolute Higgs couplings and a total width, with 10–40% precision for a Higgs below

The reading

At the LHC there is no way to measure the total Higgs production cross section directly, so any rate measurement only pins down a product of couplings divided by the total width. The usual escape is to assume a specific model, or to fix ratios such as the bottom-to-tau width ratio to their Standard Model values. This paper argues that a far weaker assumption suffices: in any model built from Higgs doublets (with or without singlets), the couplings $g^2(H,W)$ and $g^2(H,Z)$ cannot exceed their Standard Model values. Combined with the weak-boson-fusion rate, which scales as $g^4(H,W)/g^2(H,W)$ divided by the total width, that ceiling becomes an upper bound on the total width, and the width is exactly what is needed to turn every measured rate into an absolute coupling. The authors then run a likelihood fit over a parameter space of couplings-squared plus extra partial widths for undetected decays and for new particles in the $H to gamma gamma$ and gluon-fusion loops, and quote expected precisions of 10–40% on couplings and total width for $m_H < 200$ GeV after several years of running. If the argument holds, the LHC alone can say how strongly the observed Higgs couples to $W$, $Z$, $t$, $tau$ and $b$ in absolute terms, rather than only in ratios.

What carries the argument

The load-bearing mechanism is the pair of inequalities $Gamma_V le Gamma_V^{text{SM}}$ together with the weak-boson-fusion measurement of $Gamma_V^2/Gamma$, which jointly cap the total Higgs width. Everything else in the paper is bookkeeping on top of that cap: a likelihood (or $chi^2$) built from the channel rates of Ref. [7], with Poisson errors plus the systematic uncertainties tabulated in the Appendix, over a parameter space containing the couplings-squared, an extra partial width for undetected decays, and signed extra partial widths for $H to gamma gamma$ and $gg to H$ loops. Channels with five or fewer total events are discarded to avoid mimicking Poisson fluctuations, and the Higgs mass is held fixed on the assumption that $H to ZZ^* to 4ell$ or $H to gamma gamma$ measures it to better than 1%.

Extended reading notes

Core claim

The paper's central claim is that the constraint $g^2(H,V) le 1.05, g^2(H,V)_{text{SM}}$ for $V = W, Z$ — justified in any multi-Higgs-doublet model and in the MSSM in particular — is sufficient to determine absolute Higgs couplings and the total width from LHC data. The logic runs through the weak-boson-fusion channel: the $qqH to qqVV$ rate measures $Gamma_V^2/Gamma$, and the ceiling on $Gamma_V$ converts that measurement into an upper bound on $Gamma$. Once $Gamma$ is bounded, the measured products $Gamma_p Gamma_x / Gamma$ for gluon fusion, $tbar t H$, $WH$ and the various decay modes yield absolute partial widths rather than ratios. Fitting over $m_H$ from 110 to 190 GeV in three luminosity scenarios ($2 times 30$ fb$^{-1}$, $2 times 300 + 2 times 100$ fb$^{-1}$ with degraded weak-boson-fusion efficiency at high luminosity, and $2 times 300$ fb$^{-1}$ with full weak-boson-fusion running), the authors find 20–40% accuracy on couplings-squared below 150 GeV and about 10% above the $WW$ threshold, with the undetected partial width constrained to 15–55% of the total width at $2 times 30$ fb$^{-1}$. Adding the assumptions that $g^2(H,W)$ sits within 5% of its Standard Model value, that the $W$/$Z$ coupling ratio is Standard-Model-like to 1%, and that no new particles run in the loops brings fermion couplings to 10–20%, with $g^2(H,b)$ the exception at roughly 30% below 130 GeV. As an application, the authors fit MSSM benchmark scenarios and find that with 300 fb$^{-1}$ the Standard Model could be excluded at $5sigma$ for pseudoscalar masses up to about 350 GeV in the $m_h^{text{max}}$ scenario.

Load-bearing premise

The quoted 10–40% accuracies rest entirely on hand-estimated systematic and background-normalization errors, which the authors themselves say are estimates that will only be pinned down once the LHC runs.

Editorial extensions

If this is right

  • LHC data alone, without a linear collider's missing-mass measurement, can yield absolute Higgs couplings to $W$, $Z$, $t$, $tau$ and $b$ at the 10–40% level for a Higgs below 200 GeV.
  • The total Higgs width becomes a measured quantity bounded from above, so an excess of invisible or unobserved decays can be detected as a partial width rather than hiding in a ratio.
  • New physics in the $H to gamma gamma$ and gluon-fusion loops is constrained to roughly $pm(10$–$15)%$ and $pm(30$–$45)%$ of the Standard Model loop contributions respectively at the higher luminosity scenario.
  • Within the MSSM $m_h^{text{max}}$ scenario, Higgs data alone can exclude the Standard Model at $5sigma$ up to $M_A simeq 350$ GeV and at $3sigma$ up to $M_A simeq 450$ GeV with 300 fb$^{-1}$.
  • The weak-boson-fusion channels carry most of the discriminating power, so preserving forward-jet tagging and central-jet vetoing at high luminosity is what the analysis most depends on experimentally.

Reading between the lines

Editorial extensions of the paper, not claims the author makes directly.

  • The same width-cap argument should apply to any future collider where the total cross section is not directly measurable, so the technique is less about the LHC specifically than about what a one-sided theoretical bound plus a doubly-coupled rate can buy.
  • Because the cap is one-sided, the extracted couplings are asymmetric: a Higgs that couples more weakly than the Standard Model is easier to accommodate than one that couples more strongly, which suggests quoting upper limits on $g^2(H,V)$ separately from the central values.
  • The paper's own numbers imply that the bottom coupling will remain the weakest link at the LHC, so a future $e^+e^-$ Higgs factory's model-independent recoil measurement is the natural place for that number to be settled.
  • Extending the fit to allow the $W$/$Z$ coupling ratio to float freely, rather than fixing it by SU(2), would be a clean diagnostic: a measured deviation from the Standard Model ratio would itself be evidence for Higgs states beyond doublets and singlets.
Original abstract

We show how LHC Higgs boson production and decay data can be used to extract gauge and fermion couplings of Higgs bosons. We show that very mild theoretical assumptions, which are valid in general multi-Higgs doublet models, are sufficient to allow the extraction of absolute values for the couplings rather than just ratios of the couplings. For Higgs masses below 200 GeV we find accuracies of 10-40% for the Higgs boson couplings and total width after several years of LHC running. Slightly stronger assumptions on the Higgs gauge couplings even lead to a determination of couplings to fermions at the level of 10-20%. We also study the sensitivity to deviations from SM predictions in several supersymmetric benchmark scenarios as a subset of the analysis.

The compiled record

The paper's own sentences, arranged, kept beside the review and separate from it. Each label is drawn from a closed vocabulary; the number beside it is the probability the classifier gave that label. Numbers in the tables are the authors', checked by code. No sentence in this record was written by a model.

Compiled by classifier-1.13-20260917 via OpenRouter, question bank abstract-p1-20260923, 2026-09-23: 1 request, 4,330 input tokens, $0.0002 reported.

What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.03 · states limitation 0.71 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.15 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.98 · compares with prior results 0.14 · mentions code or data availability 0.02.

The abstract, sentence by sentence

arXiv listing abstract v1. Results and the main claim are underlined; .

We show how LHC Higgs boson production and decay data can be used to extract gauge and fermion couplings of Higgs bosons. We show that very mild theoretical assumptions, which are valid in general multi-Higgs doublet models, are sufficient to allow the extraction of absolute values for the couplings rather than just ratios of the couplings. For Higgs masses below 200 GeV we find accuracies of 10-40% for the Higgs boson couplings and total width after several years of LHC running. Slightly stronger assumptions on the Higgs gauge couplings even lead to a determination of couplings to fermions at the level of 10-20%. We also study the sensitivity to deviations from SM predictions in several supersymmetric benchmark scenarios as a subset of the analysis.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#sentencerolethe authors' own workstates the main conclusionstrength
s0 We show how LHC Higgs boson production and decay data can be used to extract gauge and fermion couplings of Higgs bosons. contribution 0.99 0.89 0.59 asserted 1.00
s1 We show that very mild theoretical assumptions, which are valid in general multi-Higgs doublet models, are sufficient to allow the extraction of absolute values for the couplings rather than just ratios of the couplings. contribution 0.56 0.85 0.26 asserted 1.00
s2 For Higgs masses below 200 GeV we find accuracies of 10-40% for the Higgs boson couplings and total width after several years of LHC running. result 1.00 0.94 0.23 asserted 1.00
s3 Slightly stronger assumptions on the Higgs gauge couplings even lead to a determination of couplings to fermions at the level of 10-20%. result 1.00 0.93 0.13 asserted 0.94
s4 We also study the sensitivity to deviations from SM predictions in several supersymmetric benchmark scenarios as a subset of the analysis. contribution 0.96 0.92 0.04 asserted 0.98

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: method or tool 0.83 · evidence from simulation or computation 0.67.

What was examined, and what was not

sources read
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not examined
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  • figures and tables
  • references and citing sentences
  • relations to other papers
levels run
  • P abstract
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  • S sections
  • T body sentences
  • C citations
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Every quoted sentence on this record is the authors'. Every label is from Pith's closed vocabulary, with the probability shown beside it. Every number in the measurements table is the authors', checked by code. Record as JSON

Figures
Figure 1. Relative precisions of fitted new partial widths as a functio
Figure 2. Relative precision of fitted Higgs couplings-squared as a fu
Figure 3. As in Fig. 2, but with more restrictive assumptions. Here we
Figure 4. Fit within the MSSM mmax h scenario in the MA–tan β plane for three luminosity scenarios. The two panels show the region (to the left of the curves) which would yield a ≥ 5σ (∆χ 2 ≥ 25) or ≥ 3σ (∆χ 2 ≥ 9) discrepancy from the SM. The mostly-horizontal dotted lines are contours of mh in steps of 5 GeV. the latter. In this scenario the SUSY threshold corrections to the b mass are also quite small, so that the ratio of the hbb and hτ τ couplings essentially takes its SM value. The h → b ¯b decay mode dominates the Higgs total width in this scenario. The pattern of Higgs coupling…
Figure 5. Fit within the MSSM mmax h scenario in the MA–tan β plane for the 2×300 fb−1 luminosity scenario. The 5σ lines are shown using WBF channels only (long–dashed), all channels except WBF (short–dashed), and the full fit (solid line). the mmax h scenario we show the 5σ contours in the 2×300 fb−1 luminosity scenario in the MA–tan β plane. We plot separately the fit using only the WBF channels (long–dashed), using all channels except WBF (short–dashed), and the full fit (solid). It becomes obvious that the WBF channels have the strongest impact. Therefore it will be very helpful for this…
Figure 6. Fit within the MSSM “gluophobic Higgs” (left) and the “small

Figures reproduced from arXiv:hep-ph/0406323 by the authors.

References
How the literature uses it

64 arXiv papers cite this in 78 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

Papers whose main result relates to this one's

Found among the papers closest to this one by title and main claim. Pith's classifier compared each pair's main results and a second model family confirmed the relation; checked against two further families, shown conflicts agreed 118 times in 120 and shown same results 218 times in 239. The quoted sentence is the other paper's main claim.

States the same result 2 papers

Papers citing it · 56 sentences without a confident label

Contests it 2 papers
Uses its method or tool 1 paper
  • ([ref]), which makes an absolute determination of the $κ_i$ possible (a milder assumption that also allows to constrain the total width is to assume $κ_W ≤1$ and $κ_Z ≤1$ [ref] ).

    ILC Higgs White Paper · Simplified approach for the analysis of Higgs couplings · 0.80

Compares with it 1 paper
Cites it as background 18 papers
  • The study of the Higgs boson fit was pioneered in Ref. [ref] , while recent fits of new LHC data were published in Refs. [ref] .

    Reconstructing Higgs boson properties from the LHC and Tevatron data · Introduction · 0.85

  • Previous studies of Higgs coupling extraction from LHC data have dealt with this flat direction either by assuming that no unexpected Higgs decay channels exist [ref] , or by assuming that the Higgs couplings to $WW$ and $ZZ$ are bounded from above by their SM value [ref] .[The latter assumption holds in any extended Higgs sector that contains only regular SU(2)$_L$ doublets and singlets.

    Model-independent Higgs coupling measurements at the LHC using the H \to ZZ \to 4l lineshape · Introduction · 0.90

  • For a SM-like Higgs boson, the vector boson fusion process, $qq→qqh$, is expected to provide Higgs signals in the $h→W^+W^-$ [ref] , $h→τ^+τ^-$ [ref] , and/or $h→γγ$ [ref] decay channels [ref] , depending on the Higgs boson mass, and produce crucial information for extracting the size of Higgs boson couplings [ref] .

    Azimuthal Angle Correlations for Higgs Boson plus Multi-Jet Events · Introduction · 0.85

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