Energy Spectra and Energy Correlations in the Decay $H\to ZZ\to μ^+μ^-μ^+μ^-$

Abstract

It is shown that in the sequential decay $H\to ZZ\to (f_1\bar{f_1})+ (f_2\bar{f_2})$, the energy distribution of the final state particles provides a simple and powerful test of the $HZZ$ vertex. For a standard Higgs boson, the energy spectrum of any final fermion, in the rest frame of $H$, is predicted to be $dΓ/dx\sim 1+β^4-2(x-1)^2$, with $β= \sqrt{1-4m^2_Z/m^2_H}$ and $1-β\le x=4E/m_H\le 1+β$. By contrast, the spectrum for a pseudoscalar Higgs is $dΓ/dx \sim β^2+(x-1)^2$. There are characteristic energy correlations between $f_1$ and $f_2$ and between $f_1$ and $\bar{f_2}$. These considerations are applied to the ``gold--plated'' reaction $H\to ZZ\to μ^+μ^-μ^+μ^-$, including possible effects of CP--violation in the $HZZ$ coupling. Our formalism also yields the energy spectra and correlations of leptons in the decay $H\to W^+W^-\to l^+ν_ll^- \bar{ν_l}$.