Weakly-Coupled Higgs Bosons and Precision Electroweak Physics

We examine the prospects for discovering and elucidating the weakly-coupled Higgs sector at future collider experiments. The Higgs search consists of three phases: (i) discovery of a Higgs candidate, (ii) verification of the Higgs interpretation of the signal, and (iii) precision measurements of Higgs sector properties. The discovery of one Higgs boson with Standard Model properties is not sufficient to expose the underlying structure of the electroweak symmetry breaking dynamics. It is critical to search for evidence for a nonminimal Higgs sector and/or new physics associated with electroweak symmetry breaking dynamics. An improvement in precision electroweak data at future colliders can play a useful role in confirming the theoretical interpretation of the Higgs search results. Summary Report The Weakly-Coupled Higgs Boson and Precision Electroweak Physics Working Group 1996 DPF/DPB Summer Study on New Directions for High Energy Physics 25 June–12 July, 1996, Snowmass, CO Weakly-Coupled Higgs Bosons and Precision Electroweak Physics∗ Howard E. Haber Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 Tao Han Department of Physics, University of California, Davis, CA 95616 Frank S. Merritt Department of Physics, University of Chicago, IL 60637 John Womersley Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510 Precision Electroweak Physics Subgroup Conveners U. Baur (SUNY-Buffalo) and M. Demarteau (Fermilab) Higgs Boson Discoveries Subgroup Conveners C. Kao (Univ. of Wisconsin) and P.C. Rowson (SLAC) Higgs Boson Properties Subgroup Conveners J. F. Gunion (UC-Davis), R. Van Kooten (Indiana Univ.) and L. Poggioli (CERN)