Probing the Higgs–strange-quark coupling at e + e − colliders using light-jet flavor tagging

Abstract

We propose a method to probe the coupling of the Higgs to strange quarks by tagging strange jets at future lepton colliders. For this purpose we describe a jet-flavor observable, JF, that is correlated with the flavor of the quark associated with the hard part of the jet. Using this variable, we set up a strangeness tagger aimed at studying the decay h→s¯s. We determine the sensitivity of our method to the strange Yukawa coupling, and find it to be of the order of the standard-model expectation. ; Funded by SCOAP3. ; The work of G. P. is supported by grants from the BSF, ERC, ISF, the Minerva Foundation, and the Segre Research Award. A. S. is supported by grants from the BSF, GIF, and ISF, and the European Union's Horizon 2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme. ; Peer reviewed