Influence of new states in searches for negative gauge-Higgs couplings

Abstract

In this work, we explore how constraints based on interference effects for the negative gauge-Higgs coupling scenario are affected by new physics. Models that achieve this wrong-sign gauge-Higgs coupling inevitably have new charged Higgs states. These states affect the interpretation of interference effects. We recast the ATLAS analysis for VBF $Wh$, showing that the previously excluded negative gauge-Higgs coupling scenario is still experimentally viable for charged Higgs masses below $370$~GeV. We show that it is possible to weaken this bound further with mild tuning in the parameter space. We discuss how to further constrain the wrong-sign gauge-Higgs coupling hypothesis and point out the potential of VBF $Zh$ to exclude this scenario in a model-independent way.

Comments: 14 pages, 8 figures. Extended dicussion, conclusions unchanged