Has a fermiophobic Higgs boson been detected at the LHC?

Abstract

We show that, in the present inclusive searches for the Higgs boson at the LHC, a fermiophobic Higgs mimics the standard-model-like Higgs if its mass is around 125 GeV. For that mass the order-of-magnitude reduction of fermiophobic Higgs production cross sections is compensated by a corresponding increase in the Higgs branching fraction into $\gamma\gamma$, while the $WW^*,$ $ZZ^*,$ $Z\gamma$ signal yields are predicted to be somewhat smaller. The excess seen in the ATLAS and CMS fermiophobic Higgs boson searches in $\gamma\gamma$ channel, including the exclusive vector-boson-fusion analysis, suggests that the LHC sees a fermiophobic instead of a standard-model-like Higgs boson. If the Higgs boson turns out to be fermiophobic, many of our present ideas of new physics should be revised.