Beyond Higgs Couplings: Probing the Higgs with Angular Observables at Future $e^+ e^-$ Colliders

Abstract

We study angular observables in the $e^+e^-\to Z H\to \ell^+ \ell^-\,b\bar{b}$ channel at future circular $e^+ e^-$ colliders such as CEPC and FCC-ee. Taking into account the impact of realistic cut acceptance and detector effects, we forecast the precision of six angular asymmetries at CEPC (FCC-ee) with center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} =$ 240 GeV and 5 (30) ${\rm ab}^{-1}$ integrated luminosity. We then determine the projected sensitivity to a range of operators relevant for the Higgs-strahlung process in the dimension-6 Higgs EFT. Our results show that angular observables provide complementary sensitivity to rate measurements when constraining various tensor structures arising from new physics. We further find that angular asymmetries provide a novel means of both probing BSM corrections to the $H Z γ$ coupling and constraining the "blind spot" in indirect limits on supersymmetric scalar top partners.

28 pages, 9 figures. v2: references added, matches published version in JHEP