Exploring CP phase in τ-lepton Yukawa coupling in Higgs decays at the LHC

Abstract

We study the prospect of determining the CP violating phase in τ-lepton Yukawa coupling at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). While the current run is already exploring the production of a pair of the third generation τ leptons from Higgs decay, these measurements are not sensitive enough to constrain the CP violating phase. In this paper, several CP odd observables are proposed and analyzed utilizing the dominant channels with the semi-invisible hadronic decay of τ. Several asymmetries corresponding to the T odd momentum correlations are also studied and their sensitivities to the CP violating phase in tau-lepton Yukawa couplings are estimated at 13 TeV LHC with 1000 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. We also present a novel way to reconstruct τ momentum at the LHC utilizing the information of impact parameter. Finally, we obtain that the asymmetries can be as large as 35% for a case of maximal CP violation in the τ Yukawa couplings.