Paper detail

Constraining the Higgs valence contribution in the proton

Non-perturbative gauge-invariance under the strong and the weak interactions dictates that the proton contains a non-vanishing valence contribution from the Higgs particle. By introducing an additional parton distribution function (PDF), we investigate the experimental consequences of this prediction. The Herwig 7 event generator and a parametrized CMS detector simulation are used to obtain predictions for a scenario amounting to the LHC Run II data set. We use those to assess the impact of the Higgs PDF on the pp->ttbar process in the single lepton final state. Comparing to nominal simulation we derive expected limits as a function of the shape of the valence Higgs PDF. We also investigate the process pp->ttZ at the parton level to add further constraints.