Comments on the diphoton excess: critical reappraisal of effective field theory interpretations

• Main Authors: Kamenik, Jernej F. (Author), Safdi, Benjamin Ryan (Contributor), Soreq, Yotam (Contributor), Zupan, Jure (Author)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Center for Theoretical Physics (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Berlin Heidelberg, 2016-08-10T19:23:41Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 We consider the diphoton excess observed by ATLAS and CMS using the most up-to-date data and estimate the preferred enhancement in the production rate between 8 TeV and 13 TeV. Within the framework of effective field theory (EFT), we then show that for both spin-0 and spin-2 Standard Model (SM) gauge-singlet resonances, two of the three processes S --> ZZ, S --> Zγ, and S --> W W must occur with a non-zero rate. Moreover, we demonstrate that these branching ratios are highly correlated in the EFT. Couplings of S to additional SM states may be constrained and differentiated by comparing the S production rates with and without the vector-boson fusion (VBF) cuts. We find that for a given VBF to inclusive production ratio there is maximum rate of S to gauge bosons, bb[overbar], and lighter quark anti-quark pairs. Simultaneous measurements of the width and the VBF ratio may be able to point towards the existence of hidden decays.