Distinguishing Little-Higgs Product and Simple Group models at the LHC and ILC

Abstract

We propose a means to discriminate between the two basic variants of Little Higgs models, the Product Group and Simple Group models, at the next generation of colliders. It relies on a special coupling of light pseudoscalar particles present in Little Higgs models, the pseudo-axions, to the Z and the Higgs boson, which is present only in Simple Group models. We discuss the collider phenomenology of the pseudo-axion in the presence of such a coupling at the LHC, where resonant production and decay of either the Higgs or the pseudo-axion induced by that coupling can be observed for much of parameter space. The full allowed range of parameters, including regions where the observability is limited at the LHC, is covered by a future ILC, where double scalar production would be a golden channel to look for.