Highly Boosted Higgs Bosons and Unitarity in Vector-Boson Fusion at Future Hadron Colliders

Abstract

We study the observability of new interactions which modify Higgs-pair production via vector-boson fusion processes at the LHC and at future proton-proton colliders. In an effective-Lagrangian approach, we explore in particular the effect of the operator h 2 W a µν W a,µν , which describes the interaction of the Higgs boson with transverse vector-boson polarization modes. By tagging highly boosted Higgs bosons in the final state, we determine projected bounds for the coefficient of this operator at the LHC and at a future 27 TeV or 100 TeV collider. Taking into account unitarity constraints, we estimate the new-physics discovery potential of Higgs pair production in this channel.