Double Higgs production at TeV $e^+e^-$ colliders with Effective Field Theories: sensitivity to BSM Higgs couplings

Abstract

In this work we study the production of two Higgs bosons at the two planned electron positron colliders with energies at the TeV domain, CLIC and ILC, within the context of Effective Field Theories (EFTs) to describe beyond the Standard Model Higgs Physics. We focus first on the case of the Higgs Effective Field Theory (HEFT) and next we compare with the case of the Standard Model Effective Field Theory (SMEFT). The predictions for double Higgs production in both EFTs are first presented for the most relevant subprocess participating in the total process of our interest, $e^+e^- \to HH \nu \bar \nu$, which is the scattering of two gauge bosons, $WW \to HH$, also called $WW$ fusion. The predictions for the cross section $ \sigma(W_X W_Y\to HH)$ as a function of the subprocess energy are analyzed in full detail for the two EFTs, for all the polarization channels with longitudinal and transverse modes $XY=LL, TT,LT,TL$, and for the most relevant effective operators in both cases. We will demonstrate that in the HEFT case, the total cross section can be fully understood in terms of the $LL$ contribution and this in turn is dominated at these TeV energies mainly by two HEFT coefficients. By doing the matching between the two EFTs at the level of the scattering amplitude for the subprocess, we will be able to find the correspondence of the leading coefficients in the HEFT and the SMEFT. In the final part of this work we will then explore the sensitivity to these two most relevant HEFT coefficients, at CLIC (3 TeV, 5 ab$^{-1}$) and ILC (1 TeV, 8 ab$^{-1}$). We will then conclude on the accessible region of these two parameters by studying the predicted rates at these two $e^+e^-$ colliders for the final state $b \bar b b \bar b \nu \bar \nu$ leading to characteristic signals with 4 bottom jets and missing energy.