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  • Open Access

Prospects for measuring electroweak production of Zγγ and two jets at the LHC

Ran Ding*, Ruobing Jiang, Tianyi Yang, Andrew Levin, and Qiang Li

  • School of Physics and State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

  • *Contact author: ran.ding@cern.ch
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 093004 – Published 19 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/r1rv-ybrz

Abstract

Vector boson scattering (VBS) serves as a powerful channel for probing the Standard Model (SM), particularly the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism. Currently, studies of VBS mainly focus on 2→2 scattering. In this study, we investigate the 2→3 VBS process of pp→Zγγ+2  jets through Monte Carlo simulations, including signal generation and background analysis. The signal significance is evaluated across different phase-space regions. With an integrated luminosity of 500  fb−1, the signal significance can reach about 4.5σ. Furthermore, the analysis is extended to a beyond the SM scenario involving Higgs boson decays into a Z boson and an axionlike particle, providing projected exclusion limits on the relevant coupling parameters. These results suggest that, given the ongoing release of the LHC Run 3 dataset, there will be promising opportunities to explore and potentially discover a series of 2→3 VBS processes, starting with the Zγγ channel.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 093004– Published 19 May, 2026
  • Received 9 December 2025
  • Accepted 23 April 2026
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