A new avenue to charged Higgs discovery in multi-Higgs models

Current searches for the charged Higgs at the LHC focus only on the τν, cs, and tb final states. Instead, we consider the process pp → Θ → WH → W WA where Θ is a heavy neutral Higgs boson, H is a charged Higgs boson, and A is a light Higgs boson, with mass either below or above the bb̄ threshold. The cross-section for this process is typically large when kinematically open since H → WA can be the dominant decay mode of the charged Higgs. The final state we consider has two leptons and missing energy from the doubly leptonic decay of the WW and possibly additional jets; it is therefore constrained by existing SM Higgs searches in the W W channel. We extract these constraints on the cross-section for this process as a function of the masses of the particles involved. We also apply our results specifically to a type-II two Higgs doublet model with an extra Standard-Model-singlet and obtain new and powerful constraints on m and tan β. We point out that a slightly modified version of this search, with more dedicated cuts, could be used to possibly discover the charged Higgs, either with existing data or in the future. © The Authors.