1202.2552 (A. De Rújula et al.)

Singular ways to search for the Higgs boson    [PDF]

A. De Rújula, A. Galindo

The discovery or exclusion of the fundamental standard scalar is a hot topic,
given the data of LEP, the Tevatron and the LHC, as well as the advanced status
of the pertinent theoretical calculations. With the current statistics at the
hadron colliders, the workhorse decay channel, at all relevant H masses, is H
to WW, followed by W to light leptons. Using phase-space singularity
techniques, we construct and study a plethora of "singularity variables" meant
to facilitate the difficult tasks of separating signal and backgrounds and of
measuring the mass of a putative signal. The simplest singularity variables are
not invariant under boosts along the collider's axes and the simulation of
their distributions requires a good understanding of parton distribution
functions, perhaps not a serious shortcoming during the boson hunting season.
The derivation of longitudinally boost-invariant variables, which are functions
of the four charged-lepton observables that share this invariance, is quite
elaborate. But their use is simple and they are, in a kinematical sense,
optimal.

View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.2552