The mono-Higgs + MET signal at the Large Hadron Collider: a study on the γγ and b\barb final states

Abstract

We investigate the potential of the channel {\em mono-Higgs + MET} in yielding signals of dark mater at the high-luminosity Large Hadron Collider (LHC). As illustration, a scalar dark matter in a Higgs portal scenario has been chosen, whose phenomenological viability has been ensured by postulating the existence of dimension-6 operators that enable cancellation in certain amplitudes for elastic scattering of dark matter in direct search experiments. These operators are found to have non-negligible contribution to the mono-Higgs signal. Thereafter, we carry out a detailed analysis of this signal, with the accompanying MET providing a useful handle in suppressing backgrounds. Signals for the Higgs decaying into both the diphoton and bb¯ channels have been studied. A cut-based simulation is presented first, followed by a demonstration of how the statistical significance can be improved through analyses based on Boosted Decision Trees and Artificial Neural Network. The improvement is found to be especially noticeable for the bb¯ channel.