The process `e+ e- --> H t t-bar' and its backgrounds at future electron-positron colliders

Abstract

The process $e^+e^-\to H t\bar t$ can be used at the Next Linear Collider to measure the Higgs-top Yukawa coupling. In this paper, we compute $2\to 8$ processes of the form $e^+e^-\to b\bar b b\bar b W^+W^-\to b\bar b b\bar b \ell^\pmν_\ell q\bar q'$, accounting for the Higgs-top-antitop signal as well as several irreducible backgrounds in the semi-leptonic top-antitop decay channel. We restrict ourselves to the case of a light Higgs boson in the range 100 GeV $\le M_H \le$ 140 GeV. We use helicity amplitude techniques to compute exactly such processes at tree level in the framework of the Standard Model. Total rates and differential spectra of phenomenological interest are given and discussed