Rare few-body decays of the Standard Model Higgs boson

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Authors: David d'Enterria, Van Dung Le
Cited by: 2
References: 149

Abstract

We present a survey of rare and exclusive few-body decays of the standard model (SM) Higgs boson, defined as those into two to four final particles with branching fractions \mathcal{B} ≲ 10^{-5} ℬ ≲ 10 − 5 . Studies of such decays can be exploited to constrain Yukawa couplings of quarks and leptons, probe flavour-changing Higgs decays, estimate backgrounds for exotic Higgs decays into beyond-SM particles, and/or confirm quantum chromodynamics factorization with small nonperturbative corrections. We collect the theoretical \mathcal{B} ℬ values for about 70 unobserved Higgs rare decay channels, indicating their current experimental limits, and estimating their expected bounds in p-p collisions at the HL-LHC. Among those, we include 20 new decay channels computed for the first time for ultrarare Higgs boson decays into photons and/or neutrinos, radiative quark-flavour-changing exclusive decays, and radiative decays into leptonium states. This survey can help guide and prioritize upcoming experimental and theoretical studies of unobserved Higgs boson decays.

Fields of Study & Subjects

Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies Quantum Chromodynamics and Particle Interactions Neutrino Physics Research

Publication details

Journal / source
SciPost Physics Community Reports
Publisher
Stichting SciPost
Publication date
19 February 2026
Language
EN