Flavoring the production of Higgs boson pairs

We present a study on the possibility of observing a hypothetical particle known as the flavon <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:msub><a:mi>H</a:mi><a:mi>F</a:mi></a:msub></a:math>, which is predicted in an extension of the standard model that includes the so-called Froggatt-Nielsen mechanism. The proposed decay channel is through a <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><c:mrow><c:mi>b</c:mi><c:mover accent="true"><c:mrow><c:mi>b</c:mi></c:mrow><c:mrow><c:mo stretchy="false">¯</c:mo></c:mrow></c:mover><c:mi>h</c:mi></c:mrow></c:math> final state, where the Higgs boson (<g:math xmlns:g="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><g:mi>h</g:mi></g:math>) decays to a pair of photons or a pair of <i:math xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><i:mi>b</i:mi></i:math> quarks <k:math xmlns:k="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><k:mrow><k:mo stretchy="false">(</k:mo><k:mi>h</k:mi><k:mo stretchy="false">→</k:mo><k:mi>γ</k:mi><k:mi>γ</k:mi><k:mo>,</k:mo><k:mi>b</k:mi><k:mover accent="true"><k:mrow><k:mi>b</k:mi></k:mrow><k:mrow><k:mo stretchy="false">¯</k:mo></k:mrow></k:mover><k:mo stretchy="false">)</k:mo></k:mrow></k:math>. We found that, under special scenarios of the model parameter space, the processes analyzed could provide evidence for the existence of the flavon in the next stage of the LHC: the High Luminosity LHC. Specifically, we predict a of <r:math xmlns:r="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><r:mn>5</r:mn><r:mi>σ</r:mi></r:math> (<t:math xmlns:t="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><t:mn>2</t:mn><t:mi>σ</t:mi></t:math>) in the <v:math xmlns:v="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><v:mi>h</v:mi><v:mo stretchy="false">→</v:mo><v:mi>b</v:mi><v:mover accent="true"><v:mi>b</v:mi><v:mo stretchy="false">¯</v:mo></v:mover></v:math> (<ab:math xmlns:ab="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><ab:mi>h</ab:mi><ab:mo stretchy="false">→</ab:mo><ab:mi>γ</ab:mi><ab:mi>γ</ab:mi></ab:math>) channel for a flavon mass of 800 (900) GeV and an integrated luminosity of 2500 <db:math xmlns:db="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><db:mrow><db:mo stretchy="false">(</db:mo><db:mn>3000</db:mn><db:mo stretchy="false">)</db:mo><db:mtext> </db:mtext><db:mtext> </db:mtext><db:msup><db:mrow><db:mi>fb</db:mi></db:mrow><db:mrow><db:mo>−</db:mo><db:mn>1</db:mn></db:mrow></db:msup></db:mrow></db:math>.