Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 051801 (2013)

Data from the CMS and ATLAS experiments at CERN have revealed the presence of a Higgs-like boson, whose mass is around 125 GeV. However, the data from the various decay channels of this Higgs-like particle don't all line up at a mass of 125 GeV, but rather are spread from 123 to 128 GeV. Although the discrepancies may well be solved by increasing the statistics in the analyses (as will be done for the next round of conferences this spring), theorists are pondering the possibility that we could actually be looking at more than one Higgs-like particle in the 125-GeV mass region.

John F. Gunion and colleagues propose a set of 'double ratios', based on the rates at which Higgs particles, formed through the fusion either of gluons or of vector bosons, decay into two photons, two bottom quarks, or two W bosons. The ratios are constructed so that their value is one if there is only a single Higgs in the data, but deviates from one if two or more Higgs are contributing to the signal. Such degeneracy would be consistent with some models of supersymmetry.