Measuring Higgs Boson Self-couplings with $2\rightarrow 3$ VBS Processes

Abstract

We study the measurement of Higgs boson self-couplings through $2\rightarrow 3$ vector boson scattering (VBS) processes in the framework of Standard Model effective field theory (SMEFT) at both proton and lepton colliders. The SMEFT contribution to the amplitude of the $2\to3$ VBS processes, taking $W_L W_L\rightarrow W_L W_L h$ and $W_L W_L\rightarrow h h h$ as examples, exhibits enhancement with the energy $\frac{\mathcal{A}^{\text{BSM}}}{\mathcal{A}^{\text{SM}}} \sim \frac{E^2}{Λ^2}$, which indicates the sensitivity of these processes to the related dimension-six operators in SMEFT. Simulation of the full processes at both hadron and lepton colliders with a variety of collision energies are performed to estimate the allowed region on $c_6$ and $c_{Φ_1}$. Especially we find that, with the help of exclusively choosing longitudinal polarizations in the final states and suitable $p_T$ cuts, $WWh$ process is as important as the more widely studied triple Higgs production ($hhh$) in the measurement of Higgs self-couplings. Our analysis indicates that these processes can play important roles in the measurement of Higgs self-couplings at future 100 TeV pp colliders and muon colliders. However, their cross sections are generally tiny at low energy machines, which makes them much more challenging to explore.