Enhancing the Heavy Higgs to WW Signal at Hadron-Hadron Colliders

R. D. Field and P. A. Griffin

Institute for Fundamental Theory, Department of Physics, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611

Abstract

The jet-jet profile methods that we developed to enhance the heavy Higgs to ZZ signal over its backgrounds at a proton-proton collider energy of 40 TeV are extended to the heavy Higgs to WW signal and backgrounds. The dominate background is now the pair production of top quarks via the subprocess gg to t-tbar. The process qg to Wq also contributes significantly, and backgrounds from the production of top quarks via the subprocess bg to Wt and WW continuum are also included in the analysis but are less important. To enhance the signal, a profile analysis is performed on both the "toward-side" (the W to lepton-neutrino trigger side) and on the "away-side" (the W to jet-jet system). We define observables that help distinguish between the transverse energy distribution of the signal and of the backgrounds in a electromagnetic/hadronic calorimeter system. By making cuts on both the toward and away-side observables, signal to background enhancement factors around 1,000 can be obtained.