A review of Higgs boson pair production

Abstract

In 2012 the ATLAS and CMS collaborations discovered at the LHC the Higgs boson decaying to vector bosons. This discovery has provided a strong indication that the mechanism of Electroweak Symmetry Breaking (EWSB) is similar to the one predicted by Brout-Englert-Higgs (BEH) nearly 50 years before. Since then, one of the priorities of the LHC program, as well as of the majority of the future collider proposals, is to measure directly the parameters of the EWSB potential. The goal is to identify if it has indeed the straightforward quartic shape predicted by BEH or it is more complex, as the result of an unexplored physics nature. The answer to this major scientific question will have a considerable impact on our understanding of vacuum properties and the history of the universe through the EWSB during the Big Bang. The only direct way to probe these couplings is through the measure of the production of multiple Higgs bosons, two being the simplest case. In this paper, we present a comprehensive review of the current searches and the state of the art insights on the topic. In particular, we explain why this ambitious project is even more challenging than the discovery of the Higgs boson itself. Finally, we sketch the plans of the HEP community for how to access the parameters of the BEH mechanism. This review is adapted to a curious reader familiar with particle physics in general or a scientist who wants to have a landscape overview of the topic.