Scattering rates for transversely polarized vector bosons in the effective field theory framework

Abstract

Recently, there has been an intense discussion in the theoretical and experimental communities on the use of the effective Lagrangian in the Higgs measurements to be performed with Run2 of the LHC. Theoretical analyses have been performed of several processes, including associated production of the Higgs with a vector boson and Triple Gauge Coupling (TGC) measurements, to extract bounds on the coefficients of the effective operators. Acomplete analysis of the V V scatterings including the effects of all the relevant dimension-6 operators is however still missing. Previous studies focused on the scattering of longitudinally polarized W and Z bosons. Scattering rates for transversely polarized vector bosons, while parametrically sub-dominant at high energy, are rather large due to a known numerical enhancement, and can give additional information on the effective operators. It is thus important to perform a detailed study of these processes in the EFT framework and compare the results with those from other processes, in particular TGC measurements. We plan to perform such study of V V to V V and V V to hh, clarifying which kind of information can be extracted from the experimental observation of these processes. This includes elaborating collider strategies to enhance the sensitivity on new physics effects and disentangle the contribution of different operators. (AU)