Digging for top squarks from Higgs data: from signal strengths to differential distributions

Abstract

Abstract One way to hunt for top squarks is to look for deviations from the Standard Model in loop level processes involving Higgses. This method is indirect, but complementary to direct searches as it does not rely on specific top squark decays. Studying inclusive Higgs production pp → h alone is insufficient, since there are parameter regions where the effects of the two top squarks approximately cancel. This degeneracy can be broken by looking at the rate for highly boosted Higgses recoiling against a jet, pp → h + jet. In this paper we perform a detailed study of the complementarity of the inclusive and highly boosted processes at the LHC, both in existing Run 1 and Run 2 data, and looking forward to high luminosity. To break the degeneracy, our calculation must maintain the full mass dependence in the loop functions and therefore cannot be recast in an effective field theory framework. We quantify the dependence of both topologies in the top squark parameter space, and outline which levels of experimental and theoretical understanding would be needed for boosted Higgses to be competitive with inclusive Higgs production.