Higgs Boson Production and Decay at the Tevatron

TL;DR

This paper surveys the theoretical status of Higgs production and decay at the Tevatron within the SM and MSSM, emphasizing higher-order QCD corrections and their phenomenological impact. It consolidates the dominant production channels, notably $gg\to H$ and $q\bar q\to VH$, and outlines how NLO corrections ($K$-factors) substantially modify cross sections while reducing theoretical uncertainties to about $15\%$. It also details the decay patterns across mass ranges, the influence of running quark masses on $H\to b\bar b$ and $H\to c\bar c$, and the MSSM-specific decays and production modes, including in high $\tan\beta$ scenarios. Overall, the work argues for a near-complete theoretical framework for Tevatron Higgs phenomenology, guiding Run II search strategies and providing tools like HDECAY for precise branching ratios.

Abstract

The theoretical status of Higgs boson production and decay at the Tevatron within the Standard Model and its minimal supersymmetric extension is reviewed. The focus will be on the evaluation of higher-order corrections to the production cross sections and their phenomenological implications.

Figures (7)

• Figure 1: Branching ratios of the dominant decay modes of the SM Higgs particle. All relevant higher order corrections are taken into account. The shaded bands represent the variations due to the uncertainties in the input parameters: $\alpha_s(M_Z^2) = 0.120 \pm 0.003$, $\overline{m}_b(M_b) = (4.22 \pm 0.05)$ GeV, $\overline{m}_c(M_c) = (1.22 \pm 0.06)$ GeV, $M_t = (174 \pm 5)$ GeV.
• Figure 2: Branching ratios of the MSSM Higgs bosons $h (a), H (b), A (c), H^\pm (d)$ for non-SUSY decay modes as a function of their masses for two values of $\hbox{tg$\beta$}=3, 30$ and vanishing mixing. The common squark mass has been chosen as $M_S=1$ TeV.
• Figure 3: Branching ratios of the light scalar MSSM Higgs boson $h$ decays into charginos/neutralinos as a function of its mass for $\hbox{tg$\beta$}=30$. The mixing parameters have been chosen as $\mu=150$ GeV, $A_t=2.45$ TeV, $A_b=0$ and the squark masses of the first two generations as $M_{\widetilde{Q}}=1000$ GeV. The gaugino mass parameter has been set to $M_2=136$ GeV. The masses of the lightest gauginos are $m_{\tilde{\chi}_1^0} = 56.5$ GeV and $m_{\tilde{\chi}_1^\pm} = 94.1$ GeV.
• Figure 4: Higgs production cross sections at the Tevatron [$\sqrt{s}=2$ TeV] for the various production mechanisms as a function of the Higgs mass. The full QCD-corrected results for the gluon fusion $gg \to H$, vector boson fusion $qq\to VVqq \to Hqq$, Higgs-strahlung $q\bar{q} \to V^* \to HV$ and associated production $gg,q\bar{q} \to Ht\bar{t}, Hb\bar{b}$ are shown. The QCD corrections to the last process are unknown and thus not included.
• Figure 5: Neutral MSSM Higgs production cross sections at the Tevatron [$\sqrt{s}=2$ TeV] for gluon fusion $gg\to \Phi$, vector-boson fusion $qq\to qqVV \to qqh/ qqH$, vector-boson bremsstrahlung $q\bar{q}\to V^* \to hV/HV$ and the associated production $gg,q\bar{q} \to \Phi b\bar{b}/ \Phi t\bar{t}$ including all known QCD corrections. (a) $h,H$ production for $\hbox{tg$\beta$}=3$, (b) $h,H$ production for $\hbox{tg$\beta$}=30$, (c) $A$ production for $\hbox{tg$\beta$}=3$, (d) $A$ production for $\hbox{tg$\beta$}=30$.