Caterina Vernieri - SLAC - The beauty of the Higgs Boson in the quest for new physics
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US/Central
F-108 (BLDG 362)
F-108
BLDG 362
Description
The Higgs boson discovery at the LHC marked a historic milestone in the study of fundamental particles and their interactions. Over the last six years, we have begun measuring its properties, which are essential to build a deep understanding of the Higgs sector of the Standard Model and to potentially uncover new phenomena. The Higgs' favored decay mode to beauty (b) quarks (~60%) had so far remained elusive because of the overwhelming background of b-quark production due to strong interactions. Observing the Higgs decay to b-quarks was one of the critical missing pieces of our knowledge of the Higgs sector. The recent observation of the decay of the SM Higgs boson into a pair of b-quarks is yet another major milestone. This experimental achievement at the LHC, considered nearly impossible in the past, makes use of several advanced machine learning techniques to identify the b-quark distinctive signature and improve the Higgs boson mass resolution. The Higgs decay to b-quarks is also a key element in the exploration of the structure of the Higgs field potential at the LHC, through the study of the Higgs boson pair production.