Phys. Rev. Lett. 112, 101802 (2014)

So far, data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN have revealed the existence of a Higgs boson — one that seems to line up well with the behaviour expected of a 'standard model' Higgs. Now, a full exploration of the properties of this Higgs is imperative. Although some aspects of Higgs physics fall beyond the capabilities of the LHC experiments (because, for example, their production cross-section is so small), the proton–proton collision process in which two Higgs bosons are created alongside two 'jets' of particles is one that should lend itself to useful study.

So say Matthew J. Dolan and colleagues, who have now produced a complete phenomenological analysis of this so-called hhjj channel. The calculations are complicated, but Dolan et al. have been able to get a handle on two particular contributory processes, weak boson fusion and gluon fusion — they conclude that the latter dominates. LHC measurements of hhjj would link to crucial details of electroweak symmetry breaking, and the prospects are, according to the authors, “challenging but not hopeless”.