Effective Lagrangian for a light Higgs-like scalar

Abstract

We reconsider the effective Lagrangian that describes a light Higgs-like boson and better clarify a few issues which were not exhaustively addressed in the previous literature. In particular we highlight the strategy to determine whether the dynamics responsible for the electroweak symmetry breaking is weakly or strongly interacting. We also discuss how the effective Lagrangian can be implemented into automatic tools for the calculation of Higgs decay rates and production cross sections.

40 pages + 14 pages of Appendix, 2 figures. v3: Shortened version following the recommendation of the journal. The technical description of the code eHDECAY appeared as a separate paper now available on arXiv. v4: typos corrected and extended discussion on CP-violating Higgs couplings