Speaker
Description
The shape of the Higgs potential and the strength of the Higgs boson’s self-interaction remain central open questions following the discovery of the Higgs boson. Higgs-pair production offers sensitivity to the trilinear Higgs self-coupling, but in vector-boson fusion (VBF), the same final state is also sensitive to interactions between Higgs and electroweak gauge bosons and potentially to additional scalar particles. Consequently, a deviation in the HHjj rate or kinematic distributions cannot automatically be attributed to the Higgs self-coupling alone. This work develops and validates two extensions to VBFNLO: a three-parameter coupling-modifier description (κλ, κV , κ2V ) and a generic CP-even scalar X coupled to WW, ZZ, and HH. It proposes to compare their separate and combined effects, including resonance–continuum interference, to assess how alternative Higgs-sector dynamics can affect the interpretation of self-coupling measurements. The project combines reproducible generator validation, rate-matched benchmark comparisons, differential-observable studies, and carefully bounded statements about experimental relevance. The goal is to strengthen the theoretical interpretation of measurements used to constrain trilinear interaction.