ON MEASURING THE $\gamma \gamma$ WIDTH OF THE INTERMEDIATE- MASS HIGGS AT A PHOTON LINEAR COLLIDER

Abstract

The identification of the intermediate-mass Higgs process $\gamma \gamma \to H\to b\overline{b}$ will be one of the most important goals of a future photon linear collider. Backgrounds from the continuum $\gamma \gamma \to c\overline{c},b\overline{b}$ leading-order processes can be suppressed by using polarized photon beams in the $J_z=0$ initial-state. The radiative processes $\gamma \gamma \to c\overline{c}g,b\overline{b}g$ can mimic the two-jet topology of the Higgs signal and provide the dominant background in the $J_z=0$ channel. Particularly problematic is the $\gamma \gamma \to c\overline{c}g\to 2$ jets process. The effects of imposing additional cuts are investigated and it is shown that the radiative background could be reduced to a manageable level.

Comments: 7 pages, LATEX file, hard copies of 2 figs. availabl upon request