Boosting VBF Reconstruction at Muon Colliders

Abstract

Forward muon detection at high-energy muon colliders is crucial for resolving the underlying electroweak process. Detecting these muons is challenging in current detector designs, limited by the shielding required to suppress the beam-induced background. This work proposes using asymmetric beam energies to boost one of the forward muons into the detector acceptance, enhancing the ability to distinguish between $W$- and $Z$-initiated vector boson fusion processes. We demonstrate the capabilities of such an asymmetric collider using VBF Higgs production at 3 and 10 TeV muon colliders with modest boost asymmetries. Asymmetric beam configurations can partially recover the physics potential lost in forward regions when detector coverage is limited.