Finite width effects in Higgs decays as a means of measuring massive particle widths

We calculate decays of a Standard Model Higgs boson to a virtual massive particle and discuss how this depends on the massive particle total width. If the partial width of Higgs to a virtual massive particle can be measured this gives a measurement of that massive particle’s width. We discuss how one would go about measuring these partial widths of a Higgs experimentally, and how this could lead to a measurement of the W boson and t quark width. For the latter extreme dependence on the Higgs mass and the small H → tt∗ branching ratios mean that little can be learnt about the t quark width. For the former there is also large dependence on the Higgs mass; however this can be removed by taking the ratio of H → WW ∗ decays to H → ZZ∗ decays. This ratio also has the advantage of being fairly insensitive to physics beyond the Standard Model. Unfortunately, for Higgs masses of interest the H → ZZ∗ branching ratio is small enough that we require many 1000’s of tagged Higgs decays before an accurate measurement of the W width can be made. This is likely to be hard experimentally. PACS: 14.80.Bn 13.38.-b * Email address: summers @ phenxr.physics.wisc.edu