Z-gamma-Higgs vertex effects in Higgs production at future e-gamma linear colliders

Abstract

One-loop production of a Higgs boson in electro-photon collisions at future accelerators is studied via the process (e gamma -> e H), for intermediate Higgs masses. Exact cross sections, including the possibility of longitudinally polarized initial beams, are presented. Confirming previous estimates made in the Weizs\"acker-Williams approximation, they are found to be more than two orders of magnitude larger than the cross sections for the crossed process (e e-> gamma H), in the energy range $\sqrt{s}=(0.5-2)$ TeV. We show that, not only (e gamma -> e H) has a similar potential as the (gamma gamma -> H) process for testing the one-loop gamma-gamma-H vertex, but, by requiring a final electron tagged at large angle in (e gamma -> e H), the (H e) production provides an excellent way of testing the Z-gamma-H vertex, too. Kinematical distributions for the (e gamma -> e H -> e bb) process with a tagged final electron are analyzed, and strategies for controlling the main irreducible background are found. Initial-state-radiation effects are checked to be within a few percent.