Higgs Production via Weak Boson Fusion in the Standard Model and the MSSM

TL;DR

This paper provides a comprehensive calculation of higher-order corrections to Higgs production via weak boson fusion in the Standard Model and the MSSM, including complete one-loop electroweak corrections and dominant supersymmetric contributions with complex phases. The authors implement these corrections in the public Monte Carlo tool VBFNLO, combining SM-type corrections with SUSY loop effects and two-loop propagator-type corrections, and validate results against existing literature. In the SM, electroweak corrections are of similar size to QCD corrections (about 5% for $M_H$ in the 100–200 GeV range) after WBF cuts, while in the MSSM, decoupling yields SM-like behavior for the light Higgs, and non-decoupling regions can yield corrections exceeding 10% due to SUSY loops. The work provides precise predictions for cross sections and distributions, enabling robust experimental analyses, and highlights the utility of the MSSM propagator approach and form-factor parametrisations for efficient implementation in VBFNLO.

Abstract

Weak boson fusion is expected to be an important Higgs production channel at the LHC. Complete one-loop results for weak boson fusion in the Standard Model have been obtained by calculating the full virtual electroweak corrections and photon radiation and implementing these results into the public Monte Carlo program VBFNLO which includes the NLO QCD corrections. Furthermore the dominant supersymmetric one-loop corrections to neutral Higgs production, in the general case where the MSSM includes complex phases, have been calculated. These results have been combined with all one-loop corrections of Standard Model type and with the propagator-type corrections from the Higgs sector of the MSSM up to the two-loop level. Within the Standard Model the electroweak corrections are found to be as important as the QCD corrections after the application of appropriate cuts. The corrections yield a shift in the cross section of order 5% for a Higgs of mass 100-200 GeV, confirming the result obtained previously in the literature. For the production of a light Higgs boson in the MSSM the Standard Model result is recovered in the decoupling limit, while the loop contributions from superpartners to the production of neutral MSSM Higgs bosons can give rise to corrections in excess of 10% away from the decoupling region.

Figures (10)

• Figure 1: Types of electroweak corrections to the weak boson fusion process.
• Figure 2: Results for Higgs boson production via weak boson fusion in the Standard Model. The full one-loop result, labelled "tree $+$ full corrections" is compared with various approximations (see text).
• Figure 3: Azimuthal angle distribution in the Standard Model, with $M_{H} =$ 120 GeV. The full one-loop result, labelled "tree $+$ full corrections" is compared with various approximations (see text).
• Figure 4: Corrections from fermion and sfermion loops to the formfactors of the $WWh_{1}$ vertex in the MSSM as a function of $\tan\beta$, with $M_A = 150\,\, \mathrm{GeV}$ (for the CPX scenario, $M_{H^\pm} = 150\,\, \mathrm{GeV}$ is used). For comparison, the SM formfactors are also shown, with a Higgs mass that matches the light ${\cal CP}$-even Higgs mass in the $M_h^{\rm max}$ scenario.
• Figure 5: Light Higgs boson $h$ production as a function of $M_A$ in the $M_h^{\rm max}$ scenario, with tan$\beta$ = 10.