Probing the Charm Quark Yukawa Coupling in Higgs+Charm Production

Area of Science:

• High Energy Physics
• Particle Physics
• Standard Model Physics

Background:

• The Higgs boson is a fundamental particle in the Standard Model.
• Measuring Higgs boson couplings to quarks is crucial for understanding fundamental physics.
• Charm quarks are a key component of the Standard Model.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel method for determining the Higgs boson coupling to charm quarks.
• To estimate the potential of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to constrain this coupling.
• To estimate the electroweak cross section for exclusive Higgs production in association with D mesons.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of Higgs production in association with a charm-tagged jet (pp→hc).
• Utilizing high-luminosity data from the LHC (3000 fb⁻¹).
• Estimation of electroweak cross sections for exclusive processes.

Main Results:

• A constraint of order one relative to the Standard Model value for the charm Yukawa coupling is achievable at the LHC.
• The exclusive electroweak cross section for pp→hD(*) is estimated.
• This exclusive process is not expected to be accessible at the LHC, even in its high-luminosity phase.

Conclusions:

• The proposed method offers a viable path to probe the Higgs-charm quark interaction.
• The LHC has the potential to constrain the charm Yukawa coupling.
• Exclusive Higgs production with D mesons is a challenging channel for LHC observations.