Higgs decay into two photons, dispersion relations and trace anomaly

Abstract

We examine the contribution of W boson loops to the amplitude of the process H --> \gamma \gamma within the dispersion relation approach, taking up an issue raised in this context recently. We show that the non-vanishing limit of the relevant formfactor for mW --> 0 is due to a finite subtraction induced by the value of the corresponding trace anomaly. The argument can be truned around and one thus arrives at a dispersive ("infrared") derivation of the trace anomaly.