Prospects for measuring electroweak production of $Z\gamma\gamma$ and 2 jets at the LHC

Abstract

Vector boson scattering (VBS) serves as a powerful channel for probing the Standard Model, particularly the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism. Currently, studies of VBS mainly focus on $2 \to 2$ scattering. In this study, we investigate the $2\to 3$ VBS process of $\text{p p} \to Z\gamma\gamma + 2~\text{jets}$ through Monte Carlo simulations, including signal generation and background analysis. The signal significance is evaluated across different phase-space regions. With an integrated luminosity of 500 fb$^{-1}$, the signal significance can reach about 4.5 $\sigma$. These results suggest that, given the ongoing release of the LHC Run 3 dataset, there will be promising opportunities to explore and potentially discover a series of $2\to 3$ VBS processes, starting with the $Z\gamma\gamma$ channel.