- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review D

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Letter
  • Open Access

Boosting vector boson fusion reconstruction at muon colliders

Carlos Henrique de Lima*

  • TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 2A3, Canada

  • *Contact author: cdelima@triumf.ca
PDF

Phys. Rev. D 113, L051703 – Published 10 March, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/xp3t-mvxx

Abstract

Forward muon detection at high-energy muon colliders is crucial for resolving the underlying electroweak process. Detecting these muons is challenging in current detector designs, limited by the shielding required to suppress the beam-induced background. This work proposes using asymmetric beam energies to boost one of the forward muons into the detector acceptance, enhancing the ability to distinguish between W- and Z-initiated vector boson fusion processes. We demonstrate the capabilities of such an asymmetric collider using vector boson fusion Higgs production at 3 and 10 TeV muon colliders with modest boost asymmetries. Asymmetric beam configurations can partially recover the physics potential lost in forward regions when detector coverage is limited.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

References (49)

  1. J. P. Delahaye, M. Diemoz, K. Long, B. Mansoulié, N. Pastrone, L. Rivkin, D. Schulte, A. Skrinsky, and A. Wulzer, Muon colliders, arXiv:1901.06150.
  2. C. Accettura et al., Towards a muon collider, Eur. Phys. J. C 83, 864 (2023); 84, 36(E) (2024).
  3. C. Adolphsen et al., European strategy for particle physics—Accelerator R&D roadmap, CERN Yellow Rep. Monogr. 1, 1 (2022).
  4. M. Narain et al., The future of US particle physics—The Snowmass 2021 energy frontier peport, arXiv:2211.11084.
  5. S. Asai et al. (P5 Collaboration), Exploring the quantum universe: Pathways to innovation and discovery in particle physics, arXiv:2407.19176.
  6. H. Al Ali et al., The muon Smasher’s guide, Rep. Prog. Phys. 85, 084201 (2022).
  7. K. M. Black et al., Muon Collider forum report, J. Instrum. 19, T02015 (2024).
  8. A. Costantini, F. De Lillo, F. Maltoni, L. Mantani, O. Mattelaer, R. Ruiz, and X. Zhao, Vector boson fusion at multi-TeV muon colliders, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2020) 080.
  9. M. Ruhdorfer, E. Salvioni, and A. Wulzer, Building the case for forward muon detection at a muon collider, Phys. Rev. D 111, 053010 (2025).
  10. P. Bandyopadhyay and S. Parashar, Probing a scalar singlet-triplet extension of the standard model via vector boson fusion at a muon collider, Phys. Rev. D 110, 115032 (2024).
  11. M. Ruhdorfer, E. Salvioni, and A. Weiler, A global view of the off-shell Higgs portal, SciPost Phys. 8, 027 (2020).
  12. M. Ruhdorfer, E. Salvioni, and A. Wulzer, Invisible Higgs boson decay from forward muons at a muon collider, Phys. Rev. D 107, 095038 (2023).
  13. P. Li, Z. Liu, and K.-F. Lyu, Higgs boson width and couplings at high energy muon colliders with forward muon detection, Phys. Rev. D 109, 073009 (2024).
  14. M. Forslund and P. Meade, High precision Higgs from high energy muon colliders, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2022) 185.
  15. M. Forslund and P. Meade, Precision Higgs width and couplings with a high energy muon collider, J. High Energy Phys. 01 (2024) 182.
  16. P. Bandyopadhyay, S. Parashar, C. Sen, and J. Song, Probing inert triplet model at a multi-TeV muon collider via vector boson fusion with forward muon tagging, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2024) 253.
  17. D. Barducci and A. Dondarini, Neutrino dipole portal at a high energy μ−collider, J. High Energy Phys. 10 (2024) 165.
  18. M. Frigerio and N. Vignaroli, Muon collider probes of Majorana neutrino dipole moments and masses, J. High Energy Phys. 04 (2025) 008.
  19. H.-Q. Li, H.-N. Yan, J. Gu, and X.-Z. Tan, Probing Z/W pole physics at high-energy muon colliders via vector-boson-fusion processes, Chin. Phys. C 49, 103102 (2025).
  20. C. Accettura et al. (International Muon Collider Collaboration), Interim report for the International Muon Collider Collaboration (IMCC), CERN Yellow Rep. Monogr. 2, 176 (2024).
  21. N. Bartosik, D. Calzolari, L. Castelli, A. Lechner, and D. Lucchesi (International Muon Collider Collaboration), Machine-detector interface for multi-TeV muon collider, Proc. Sci., EPS-HEP2023 (2024) 630.
  22. C. Bell et al. (MAIA Collaboration), MAIA: A new detector concept for a 10 TeV muon collider, arXiv:2502.00181.
  23. D. Calzolari, C. Carli, A. Lechner, D. Schulte, K. Skoufaris, D. Lucchesi, N. Bartosik, N. Pastrone, and F. Collamati, Lattice and detector studies for the MDI of a 10 TeV muon collider, JACoW IPAC 2023, MOPA090 (2023).
  24. D. Ally, L. Carpenter, T. Holmes, L. Lee, and P. Wagenknecht, Strategies for beam-induced background reduction at Muon Colliders, in Snowmass 2021 (2022), https://cds.cern.ch/record/2891175.
  25. N. Bartosik et al., Preliminary report on the study of beam-induced background effects at a Muon Collider, arXiv:1905.03725.
  26. T. Han, D. Liu, I. Low, and X. Wang, Electroweak couplings of the Higgs boson at a multi-TeV muon collider, Phys. Rev. D 103, 013002 (2021).
  27. M. Lu, A. M. Levin, C. Li, A. Agapitos, Q. Li, F. Meng, S. Qian, J. Xiao, and T. Yang, The physics case for an electron-muon collider, Adv. High Energy Phys. 2021, 6693618 (2021).
  28. Y. Hamada, R. Kitano, R. Matsudo, H. Takaura, and M. Yoshida, μTRISTAN, Prog. Theor. Exp. Phys. 2022, 053B02 (2022).
  29. J. Kriewald, E. Pinsard, and A. M. Teixeira, High-energy cLFV at μTRISTAN: HNL extensions of the Standard Model, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2025) 116.
  30. C. H. de Lima, D. McKeen, J. N. Ng, M. Shamma, and D. Tuckler, Probing lepton number violation at same-sign lepton colliders, Phys. Rev. D 111, 075002 (2025).
  31. A. Das, J. Li, S. Mandal, T. Nomura, and R. Zhang, Testing tree level TeV scale tyep-I and type-II seesaw scenarios in μTRISTAN, Phys. Rev. D 112, 035008 (2025).
  32. L. Calibbi, T. Li, L. Mukherjee, and Y. Yang, Probing ALP lepton flavor violation at μTRISTAN, Phys. Rev. D 110, 115009 (2024).
  33. G. Lichtenstein, M. A. Schmidt, G. Valencia, and R. R. Volkas, Complementarity of μTRISTAN and Belle II in searches for charged-lepton flavour violation, Phys. Lett. B 845, 138144 (2023).
  34. T. H. Kwok, L. Li, T. Liu, and A. Rock, Searching for heavy neutral leptons at a future muon collider, Phys. Rev. D 110, 075009 (2024).
  35. T. Han, T. Li, and X. Wang, Axion-like particles at high energy Muon Colliders—A white paper for Snowmass 2021, in Snowmass 2021 (2022), arXiv:2203.05484.
  36. Y. Bao, J. Fan, and L. Li, Electroweak ALP searches at a muon collider, J. High Energy Phys. 08 (2022) 276.
  37. S. Chigusa, S. Girmohanta, Y. Nakai, and Y. Zhang, Interplay of ALP couplings at a muon collider, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2025) 003.
  38. C. A. Lindstrøm, R. D’Arcy, and B. Foster, Status of and upgrade concepts for HALHF: The hybrid, asymmetric, linear Higgs factory, J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 3124, 012001 (2025).
  39. B. Foster, R. D’Arcy, and C. A. Lindstrom, A hybrid, asymmetric, linear Higgs factory based on plasma-wakefield and radio-frequency acceleration, New J. Phys. 25, 093037 (2023).
  40. D. Barducci and A. Strumia, A boosted muon collider, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2023) 166.
  41. T. Han, Y. Ma, and K. Xie, High energy leptonic collisions and electroweak parton distribution functions, Phys. Rev. D 103, L031301 (2021); Electroweak fragmentation at high energies: A Snowmass white paper, in Snowmass 2021 (2022).
  42. J. Alwall, R. Frederix, S. Frixione, V. Hirschi, F. Maltoni, O. Mattelaer, H. S. Shao, T. Stelzer, P. Torrielli, and M. Zaro, The automated computation of tree-level and next-to-leading order differential cross sections, and their matching to parton shower simulations, J. High Energy Phys. 07 (2014) 079.
  43. T. Sjöstrand, S. Ask, J. R. Christiansen, R. Corke, N. Desai, P. Ilten, S. Mrenna, S. Prestel, C. O. Rasmussen, and P. Z. Skands, An introduction to PYTHIA 8.2, Comput. Phys. Commun. 191, 159 (2015).
  44. M. Cacciari, G. P. Salam, and G. Soyez, FastJet user manual, Eur. Phys. J. C 72, 1896 (2012).
  45. M. Boronat, J. Fuster, I. Garcia, E. Ros, and M. Vos, A robust jet reconstruction algorithm for high-energy lepton colliders, Phys. Lett. B 750, 95 (2015).
  46. J. de Favereau, C. Delaere, P. Demin, A. Giammanco, V. Lemaître, A. Mertens, and M. Selvaggi (DELPHES 3 Collaboration), DELPHES 3, A modular framework for fast simulation of a generic collider experiment, J. High Energy Phys. 02 (2014) 057.
  47. C. H. de Lima, D. Stolarski, and Y. Wu, Status of negative coupling modifiers for extended Higgs sectors, Phys. Rev. D 105, 035019 (2022); 108, 099901(E) (2023).
  48. C. H. de Lima and D. Stolarski, Influence of new states in searches for negative gauge-Higgs couplings, J. High Energy Phys. 10 (2024) 180.
  49. C. H. de Lima and D. Tuckler, Sign of gauge-Higgs boson couplings at future lepton colliders, Phys. Rev. D 111, 015021 (2025).

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. D 113, L051703– Published 10 March, 2026
  • Received 5 August 2025
  • Accepted 23 February 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation