On interference effects in top-philic decay chains

• Main Authors: Oliver Atkinson, Christoph Englert, Panagiotis Stylianou
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-10-01
• Series: Physics Letters B
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S037026932100558X

Sizeable exotic Higgs boson production through gluon fusion via top quark loops is correlated with large Higgs decay probabilities into top quark final states, if these are kinematically accessible. It is known that gg→S→tt¯ is particularly susceptible to signal-background interference effects that can significantly impact discovery sensitivities. In such an instance, identifying more robust signatures to enhance the discovery sensitivity becomes necessary, shifting phenomenological focus to final states that show a reduced destructive signal-background interference. In this work, we discuss the phenomenological relevance of signal-signal and signal-background interference effects for decay chains. In particular, we identify asymmetric cascade decays in models of scalar extensions of the SM Higgs sector as new promising candidates. In parallel, characteristic interference patterns can provide a formidable tool for indirect CP spectroscopy of BSM sectors if a discovery is made in the future. This motivates associated searches at present and future colliders as robust discovery modes of new physics, in addition to serving as a sensitive tool for the reconstruction of the underlying UV electroweak potential.