Heavy neutrino search via semileptonic higgs decay at the LHC

Abstract

Abstract In the inverse see-saw model the effective neutrino Yukawa couplings can be sizable due to a large mixing angle between the light $$(\nu )$$ (ν) and heavy neutrinos (N). When the right handed neutrino (N) can be lighter than the Standard Model (SM) Higgs boson (h). It can be produced via the on-shell decay of the Higgs, $$h\rightarrow N\nu $$ h→Nν at a significant branching fraction at the LHC. In such a process N mass can be reconstructed in its dominant $$N\rightarrow W \ell $$ N→Wℓ decays. We perform an analysis on this channel and its relevant backgrounds, among which the $$W+$$ W+ jets background is the largest. Considering the existing mixing constraints from the Higgs and electroweak precision data, the best sensitivity of the heavy neutrino search is achieved for benchmark N mass at 100 and 110 GeV for upcoming high luminosity LHC runs.