Light Charged Higgs Bosons to AW/HW via Top Decay

Abstract: While current ATLAS and CMS measurements exclude a light charged Higgs ($m_{H^\pm}<160$ GeV) for most of the parameter region in the context of the MSSM scenarios, these bounds are significantly weakened in the Type II 2HDM once the exotic decay channel into a lighter neutral Higgs, $H^\pm \to AW/HW$, is open. In this study, we examine the possibility of a light charged Higgs produced in top decay via single top or top pair production, with the subsequent decay $H^\pm \rightarrow AW/HW$, which can reach a sizable branching fraction at low $\tan\beta$ once it is kinematically permitted. With a detailed collider analysis, we obtain exclusion and discovery bounds for the 14 TeV LHC assuming the existence of a 70 GeV neutral scalar. Assuming ${\rm BR}(H^\pm \rightarrow AW/HW)=100\%$ and ${\rm BR}(A/H \rightarrow \tau\tau)=8.6\%$, the 95% exclusion limits on ${\rm BR}(t \rightarrow H^+ b)$ are about 0.2% and 0.03% for single top and top pair production respectively, with an integrated luminosity of 300 ${\rm fb}^{-1}$. The discovery reaches are about 3 times higher. In the context of the Type II 2HDM, discovery is possible at both large $\tan\beta > 17$ for 155 GeV $< m_{H^\pm} <$ 165 GeV, and small $\tan\beta < 6$ over the entire mass range. Exclusion is possible in the entire $\tan\beta$ versus $m_{H^\pm}$ plane except for charged Higgs masses close to the top threshold. The exotic decay channel $H^\pm \to AW/HW$ is therefore complementary to the conventional $H^\pm \rightarrow \tau\nu$ channel.