The Charged Higgs from the Bottom-Up: Probing Flavor at the LHC

Abstract

We systematically study model-independent constraints on the three generic charged Higgs couplings to $b$-quarks and up-type quarks. While existing LHC searches have focussed on the $tb$ coupling, we emphasize that the LHC plays a crucial role in probing also $ub$ and $cb$ couplings, since constraints from flavor physics are weak. In particular we propose various new searches that can significantly extend the present reach on the parameter space by: i) looking for light charged Higgses that decay into $ub$-quarks, ii) probing charged Higgs couplings to light and top quarks using multi-$b$-jet signatures, iii) looking for single $b$-quarks in low-mass dijet searches, iv) searching for charge asymmetries induced by charged Higgs production via $ub$ couplings.

Comments: 20 pages + appendices, 18 figures