Prospective analysis of spin- and CP-sensitive variables in H $\rightarrow$ ZZ $\rightarrow$ l ⁺ ₁l^- ₁l ⁺ ₂l^- ₂ at the LHC

Abstract.

A possibility to prove spin and CP-eigenvalue of a Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson is presented. We exploit angular correlations in the subsequent decay H $\rightarrow$ ZZ $\rightarrow$ 4l (muons or electrons) for Higgs masses above 200 GeV. We compare the angular distributions of the leptons originating from the SM Higgs with those resulting from decays of hypothetical particles with differing quantum numbers. We restrict our analysis to the use of the Atlas-detector which is one of two multi-purpose detectors at the upcoming 14 TeV proton-proton-collider (LHC) at CERN. By applying a fast simulation of the Atlas detector it can be shown that these correlations will be measured sufficiently well that consistency with the spin-CP hypothesis 0 ⁺ of the Standard Model can be verified and the 0^- and $1^\pm$ can be ruled out with an integrated luminosity of 100 fb^-1.