Reconstructing the Higgs boson in dileptonic W decays at hadron colliders

Abstract

We examine the prospect to measure the Higgs boson mass using the recently introduced kinematic variable, the MT2-assisted on-shell (MAOS) momentum, that provides a systematic approximation to the invisible neutrino momenta in dileptonic decays of a W-boson pair. For this purpose, we introduce a modified version of the MAOS momentum that is applicable even when one or both of the W-bosons from the Higgs decay are in off shell. It is demonstrated that the MAOS Higgs mass distribution, constructed with the MAOS neutrino momenta, shows a clear peak at the true Higgs boson mass when an event cut selecting higher value of MT2 is employed. We perform the likelihood analysis for this MAOS mass distribution to determine the Higgs boson mass, and find it can improve the accuracy of the Higgs mass measurement. Our results indicate that the MAOS Higgs mass can also be useful for the discovery or exclusion of the Higgs boson in certain mass range.