Exploration of Extended Higgs Sectors with Run-2 Proton–Proton Collision Data at the LHC

One doublet of complex scalar fields is the minimal content of the Higgs sector in order to achieve spontaneous electroweak symmetry breaking and, in turn, to generate the masses of fundamental particles in the Standard Model. However, several theories beyond the Standard Model predict a nonminimal Higgs sector and introduce additional singlets, doublets or even higher-order weak isospin representations, thereby yielding additional Higgs bosons. With its high proton–proton collision energy (13 TeV during Run-2), the Large Hadron Collider opens a new window towards the exploration of extended Higgs sectors. This review article summarises the current state-of-the-art experimental results recently obtained in searches for new neutral and charged Higgs bosons with a partial or full Run-2 dataset.

Two-loop analysis of classically scale-invariant models with extended Higgs sectors

We present the first explicit calculation of leading two-loop corrections to the Higgs trilinear coupling λhhh in models with classical scale invariance (CSI), using the effective-potential approximation. Furthermore, we also study — for the first time at two loops — the relation that appears between the masses of all states in CSI theories, due to the requirement of reproducing correctly the 125-GeV Higgs-boson mass. In addition to obtaining analytic results for general CSI models, we consider two particular examples of Beyond-the-Standard-Model theories with extended Higgs sectors, namely an N-scalar model (endowed with a global O(N) symmetry) and a CSI version of the Two-Higgs-Doublet Model, and we perform detailed numerical studies of these scenarios. While at one loop the value of the Higgs trilinear coupling is identical in all CSI models, and deviates by approximately 82% from the (one-loop) SM prediction, we find that the inclusion of two- loop corrections lifts this universality and allows distinguishing different BSM scenarios with CSI. Taking into account constraints from perturbative unitarity and the relation among masses, we find for both types of scenarios we consider that at two loops λhhh deviates from its SM prediction by 100 ± 10% — i.e. a quite significant further deviation with respect to the one-loop result of ∼ 82%.

Impact of LHC Higgs couplings measurements on bosonic decays of the neutral Higgs sector in the scNMSSM

We analyze the Next-to-minimal supersymmetric Standard Model with Grand unification boundary conditions under current theoretical and experimental constraints. We compute the mass spectrum of the model and focus on the three lightest particles in the Higgs sector (two CP-even scalars, [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] and one CP-odd, [Formula: see text]). The reduced couplings of such particles, singlet-doublet components, their branching ratios to bosons and reduced cross-section to photons and massive gauge bosons via gluon fusion are thoroughly and systematically scrutinized. Our analysis is focused on the parameter space where the singlet-doublet coupling [Formula: see text] is as large as possible (keeping the perturbativity bound intact) and the ratio between the vacuum expectation values of the up-type and down-type Higgses [Formula: see text] is as small as possible, which is the region representing the most natural case of the NMSSM. We show the impact of recent constraints from the LHC on the SM-Higgs couplings to bosons and fermions on the parameter space of the model and the consequent implications on the Higgs sector. The results show that while the model is still able to account for current data, and provide an opportunity for discovery of extended Higgs sectors, recent LHC Higgs couplings constraints rule-out parts of the parameter space where [Formula: see text] (non-SM-like) and [Formula: see text] are non-singlet with masses below 400 GeV.

Proton decay in general SU(S) models

We discuss proton decay induced by dimension-5 operators in supersymmetric models containing extra hypercharge-1/3 colour-triplets. We derive a general formula relating dimension-5 operator to the colour-triplet mass matrix. We show that certain zeros in the triplet mass-matrix together with some triplet coupling selection rules can lead to elimination of dimension-5 operators. We apply this mechanism to SU(5) and flipped 517(5) theories with extended Higgs sectors.