2 Muons vs. Protons
A final generic advantage of a muon collider over a pp collider that we want to highlight has to do with the comparison of signal and background rates. Furthermore, this benefit is not restricted to production cross sections for high-mass states. This is not obvious at first glance; for low-mass states, including Standard Model particles, the rate advantage of pp colliders is considerable. For example, at √s = 14 TeV, the leading single Higgs production cross section is a factor of ∼ 50 larger at a pp machine than its µ +µ − counterpart. But ultimately, our ability to extract physics from the collider data sensitivity depends on the background rates, and here the advantage is decisively in favor of muon colliders.
As illustrated in Fig. 4, the ratio between the single Higgs production cross section and a representative “total” cross section at pp and µ +µ − colliders operating at the same √ s differs by roughly six orders of magnitude and is relatively insensitive to √ s. Here we have taken the representative “total” cross section at a pp collider to be the pp → b ¯b cross section, a relevant measure of Standard Model backgrounds; the total or inelastic pp cross sections are orders of magnitude larger. The corresponding “total” cross section at a µ +µ − collider is taken to be the sum of inclusive single electroweak boson cross sections. Assuming it
is possible to achieve comparable integrated luminosities at both experiments, it is clear that a precision Higgs program at a future muon collider provides many opportunities to study the Higgs sector in exquisite detail. Of course, these statements ultimately rest on details of detector performance and the ability to mitigate the beam induced muon collider backgrounds. Nonetheless, we see this as a clear sign that the muon collider will be an effective tool to probe both the precision and energy frontiers.
Authors:
(1) Hind Al Ali, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(2) Nima Arkani-Hamed, School of Natural Sciences, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA;
(3) Ian Banta, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(4) Sean Benevedes, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(5) Dario Buttazzo, INFN, Sezione di Pisa, Largo Bruno Pontecorvo 3, I-56127 Pisa, Italy;
(6) Tianji Cai, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(7) Junyi Cheng, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(8) Timothy Cohen, Institute for Fundamental Science, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403, USA;
(9) Nathaniel Craig, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(10) Majid Ekhterachian, Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA;
(11) JiJi Fan, Department of Physics, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA;
(12) Matthew Forslund, C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA;
(13) Isabel Garcia Garcia, Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(14) Samuel Homiller, Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA;
(15) Seth Koren, Department of Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA;
(16) Giacomo Koszegi, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(17) Zhen Liu, Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA and School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA;
(18) Qianshu Lu, Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA;
(19) Kun-Feng Lyu, Department of Physics, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong S.A.R., P.R.C;
(20) Alberto Mariotti, Theoretische Natuurkunde and IIHE/ELEM, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, and International Solvay Institutes, Pleinlaan 2, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium;
(21) Amara McCune, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(22) Patrick Meade, C. N. Yang Institute for Theoretical Physics, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY 11794, USA;
(23) Isobel Ojalvo, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA;
(24) Umut Oktem, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(25) Diego Redigolo, CERN, Theoretical Physics Department, Geneva, Switzerland and INFN Sezione di Firenze, Via G. Sansone 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy;
(26) Matthew Reece, Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA;
(27) Filippo Sala, LPTHE, CNRS & Sorbonne Universite, 4 Place Jussieu, F-75252 Paris, France
(28) Raman Sundrum, Maryland Center for Fundamental Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA;
(29) Dave Sutherland, INFN Sezione di Trieste, via Bonomea 265, 34136 Trieste, Italy;
(30) Andrea Tesi, INFN Sezione di Firenze, Via G. Sansone 1, I-50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Florence, Italy;
(31) Timothy Trott, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA;
(32) Chris Tully, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08540, USA;
(33) Lian-Tao Wang, Department of Physics and Enrico Fermi Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA;
(34) Menghang Wang, Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
