Probing an additional bottom Yukawa coupling via $bg\to b A \to b Z H$ signature

Abstract

The recent discovery of the bottom quark Yukawa coupling ($hbb$) of the 125 GeV scalar motivates one to search for extra bottom Yukawa coupling that may exist in the nature. The two Higgs doublet model without a discrete $Z_2$ symmetry allows the possibility of additional bottom Yukawa coupling $ρ_{bb}$. We show that $ρ_{bb}$ can be searched directly at the LHC via $bg\to b A \to b Z H$ and $gg \to b \bar b A \to b \bar b Z H$ processes, where $A$ and $H$ are the CP-odd and CP-even scalars respectively. We find that the $bg\to b A \to b Z H$ process could be discovered with $\sim300$ fb$^{-1}$ integrated luminosity if $ m_A \sim 300$ GeV, while the latter process may emerge in the high luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) data. A discovery might touch upon the parameter space required for the electroweak baryogenesis.