Resonant production of Wh and Zh at the LHC

Abstract

We examine the production of Wh and Zh pairs at the LHC in the context of a Strongly Interacting Symmetry Breaking Sector of the Standard Model. Our description is based on a non-linear Higgs Effective Theory, including only the Standard Model particles. We focus on its scalar sector (Higgs boson h and electroweak Goldstones associated to $W_L^\pm$ and $Z_L$), which is expected to give the strongest beyond Standard Model rescattering effects. The range of the effective theory is extended with dispersion-relation based unitarization, and compared to the alternative extension with explicit axial-vector resonances. We estimate the Wh and Zh production cross-section, where an intermediate axial-vector resonance is generated for certain values of the chiral couplings. We exemplify our analysis with a benchmark axial-vector with $M_A=3$ TeV. Interestingly enough, these different approaches provide essentially the same prediction. Finally we discuss the sensitivity of ATLAS and CMS to such resonances.