Analyzing the CP Nature of a New Scalar Particle via S->Zh Decay

Abstract

Scalar particles $S$ which are singlets under the Standard Model gauge group are generic features of many models of fundamental physics, in particular as possible mediators to a hidden sector. We show that the decay $S\to Zh$ provides a powerful probe of the CP nature of the scalar, because it is allowed only if $S$ has CP-odd interactions. We perform a model-independent analysis of this decay using an effective Lagrangian and compute the relevant Wilson coefficients arising from integrating out heavy fermions to one-loop order.

This letter is a significantly rewritten descendent of our previous work arXiv:1607.01016, which was motivated by the 750 GeV diphoton resonance. The current version contains relevant new material and is independent of the existence of such a resonance (6 pages, 4 figures; accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett.)