Measuring the Higgs boson's parity using tau -> rho upsilon

Abstract

We present a very promising method for a measurement of the Higgs boson parity using the H/A →τ+τ- →ρ+ν̄τρ-ντ→ π+π0 ν̄τ-π0ντ decay chain. The method is both model independent and independent of the Higgs production mechanism. Angular distributions of the τ decay products which are sensitive to the Higgs boson parity are defined and are found to be measurable using typical properties of a future detector for an e+e- linear collider. The prospects for the measurement of the parity of a Higgs boson with a mass of 120 GeV are quantified for the case of e+e- collisions of 500 GeV center of mass energy with an integrated luminosity of 500 fb-1. The Standard Model Higgsstrahlung production process is used as an example.