Signatures of discrete symmetries in the scalar sector

Abstract

I discuss methods to identify the presence of dicrete symmetries in the two-Higgs-doublet model by observing the masses and the cubic and quartic interactions of the scalars. The symmetries considered are a $Z_2$ symmetry under which ${\varphi }_2\to -{\varphi }_2$, and a CP symmetry which enforces real coupling constants in the Higgs potential. Those symmetries are spontaneously broken, and the $Z_2$ symmetry may also be softly broken. I identify the signatures in the interactions of the scalars that these symmetries leave after their breaking.

Comments: standard LATEX, 7 pages, no figures and no tables, Carnegie-Mellon University Report No. CMU-HEP94-16 and DOE-ER/40682-70