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Charm associated production of the pseudoscalar Higgs boson h′′ in a variant of the maximally CP-symmetric model at the LHC

R. Maciuła1, M. Maniatis2, O. Nachtmann3, and A. Szczurek1,4

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 015028 – Published 17 July, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3ktg-ps6y

Abstract

We discuss charm associated production of the pseudoscalar Higgs boson h′′ in the Maximally CP symmetric Model’ (MCPM’). In our analysis we assume mh′′=95.4  GeV, which corresponds to an enhancement observed by the CMS collaboration in the γγ channel. As discussed recently, the MCPM’ is consistent with the CMS enhancement. In this model the h′′ Higgs boson of this mass decays dominantly into cc¯ jets. The cross section for the associated h′′ production in pp→h′′cc¯ is found to be almost as big as that for the Drell-Yan (DY) cc¯→h′′ production, much larger than that for two-gluon fusion gg→h′′. Since in the MCPM’ the dominant h′′ decay is into the cc¯ channel we have to deal with the pp→cc¯cc¯ process with c and c¯ jets. In addition to the signal processes, we have sizeable single parton scattering (SPS) and double parton scattering (DPS) nonresonant background. In our analysis we include diagrams of gluon-gluon fusion gg→h′′ which lead to the cc¯cc¯ final state. We discuss also the possible role of the reaction pp→h′′h′′. Assuming 100% c and c¯ jet tagging we discuss in detail how to improve the signal-to-background ratio. Our analysis shows promising resonance-like enhancements and relatively large cross sections in the cc¯cc¯ channel within the MCPM’. In an Appendix we discuss the total cross section for h′′ production at the LHC. We also compare distributions for the reactions pp→h′′X and pp→ZX with h′′ and Z decaying to cc¯ and μ+μ−. We hope that the LHC collaborations will in the future perform the experimental studies corresponding to the theoretical studies discussed here.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 015028– Published 17 July, 2026
  • Received 20 January 2026
  • Accepted 29 May 2026
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