Probing the electroweak symmetry breaking with Higgs production at the LHC

The electroweak symmetry breaking (EWSB) mechanism is still an undecided question in particle physics. We propose to utilize the single top quark and Higgs associated production (th), Zhproduction via gluon fusion at the LHC to probe the couplings between the Higgs and the gauge bosons and further to test the EWSB. We demonstrate that the thand gg -> Zh productions are sensitive to the relative sign of couplings (ht (t) over bar, hWW) and (ht (t) over bar, hZZ), respectively. We find that the relative sign between hWWand hZZcouplings could be fully determined after combining the present measurements from gg -> h, t (t) over barh and the th, Zhchannels, as well as tZjand Zt (t) over bar production at the 13 TeV LHC, and this conclusion is not sensitive to the possible new physics contribution induced by Zt (t) over bar couplings in the gg. Zhproduction. Published by Elsevier B.V.