A composite scalar hint from di-boson resonances?

Abstract

We study the light scalar resonance sector of a composite Higgs model UV embedding based on the coset $SU(4)/Sp(4)$. Beyond the Higgs multiplet, the pseudo Nambu-Goldstone sector of this model contains Standard Model singlets which couple to the Standard Model gauge bosons through Wess-Zumino-Witten anomaly terms. They can thus be produced in gluon fusion and decay into either gluons or pairs of electroweak gauge bosons $WW$, $ZZ$, $Z\gamma$, or $\gamma\gamma$. In this letter we show that one of the pseudo Nambu-Goldstone boson states has appropriate couplings in order to explain a di-boson excess in the $WW$ channel whilst not being excluded by LHC run I bounds on the di-jet, $Z\gamma$ and $\gamma\gamma$ decay channels. A di-boson resonance production cross section of $\sim$ 10 fb at LHC run I is not a prediction of the model, but can be obtained if the confining gauge group is of high rank.