Trilinear Higgs coupling determination via single-Higgs differential measurements at the LHC

Abstract We study one-loop effects induced by an anomalous Higgs trilinear coupling on total and differential rates for the $$H\rightarrow 4\ell $$ H → 4 ℓ decay and some of the main single-Higgs production channels at the LHC, namely, VBF, VH, $$t{\bar{t}}H$$ t t ¯ H and tHj. Our results are based on a public code that calculates these effects by simply reweighting samples of Standard-Model-like events for a given production channel. For VH and $$t{\bar{t}}H$$ t t ¯ H production, where differential effects are particularly relevant, we include Standard Model electroweak corrections, which have similar sizes but different kinematic dependences. Finally, we study the sensitivity of future LHC runs to determine the trilinear coupling via inclusive and differential measurements, considering also the case where the Higgs couplings to vector bosons and the top quark is affected by new physics. We find that the constraints on the couplings and the relevance of differential distributions critically depend on the expected experimental and theoretical uncertainties.