$H^{\pm }\to cb$ in models with two or more Higgs doublets

Abstract

Searches for light $H^{\pm }$s via $t\to H^{\pm }b$ are being carried out at the LHC. Herein, it is normally assumed that the dominant decay channels are $H^{\pm }\to \tau \nu$ and $H^{\pm }\to cs$ and separate data analyses are performed with comparable sensitivity to the underlying model assumptions. However, the $H^{\pm }\to cb$ decay rate can be as large as $80\%$ in models with two or more Higgs doublets with natural flavour conservation, while satisfying the constraint from $b\to s\gamma$ for $m_{H^{\pm }}<m_t$. Despite the current search strategy for $H^{\pm }\to cs$ is also sensitive to $H^{\pm }\to cb$, a significant gain in sensitivity could be obtained by tagging the $b$ quark from the decay $H^{\pm }\to cb$.

Comments: 5 pages, 2 figures, proceedings of the workshop `Prospects for Charged Higgs Discovery at Colliders - CHARGED 2014', 16-18 September 2014, Uppsala University, Sweden