Wednesday 24 May 2017 

Speaker: Rhys Owen (RAL)


Title: "Searches for rare exclusive decays of the Higgs boson to a light meson and a photon with the ATLAS detector”

Abstract: Following the discovery of a Higgs boson at the LHC, efforts are now focusing on the full characterisation of its properties. Despite the progress made, little is still known about the Higgs boson couplings to light fermions. Direct measurements of its couplings to light quarks are plagued by small rates in the SM making them difficult to separate from the huge hadronic backgrounds. A novel experimental way to access these couplings is provided by decays of the Higgs boson to a meson and a photon. I will discuss the status of searches for such decays and the prospects for the future.