Studies of Higgs boson properties are crucial for the understanding of the standard model (SM), as the Higgs boson could couple to new particles and provide hints of physics beyond the SM (BSM). Among the proposed future colliders, the Muon Collider would allow unprecedented precision measurements of Higgs boson parameters. The goal of this study is to estimate the statistical uncertainty on the cross section of the \( H \to \tau^+ \tau^- \) process at a center-of-mass energy of 10 TeV. Tau leptons are reconstructed using the TauFinder algorithm. The efficiency of hadronic \( \tau\ (\tau_h) \) identification is found to be above 80% for 1-prong and about 50% for 3-prong decay modes. This study focuses on the fully hadronic final state of the \( H \to \tau^+ \tau^- \) decay. The main background processes are discussed and compared to the signal. The visible invariant mass is reconstructed and template fits are performed using Monte Carlo toy experiments. For an integrated luminosity of 10 ab−1 a relative statistical uncertainty on the signal cross section of Δσ/σ = 1.3% is obtained, reduced to 0.9% when two interaction points are assumed. Comparisons with sensitivities at other future colliders are also presented, and possible improvements to the analysis are discussed.
- Open Access
- Article
Tau Lepton Reconstruction at the Muon Collider: Cross Section Measurement of the H → τ+τ− Process
- Kevin Dewyspelaere,
- Giacomo Da Molin,
- Giovanni Battista Marozzo,
- Lorenzo Valla †,
- Michele Gallinaro *
Author Information
Received: 23 Jan 2026 | Revised: 18 Mar 2026 | Accepted: 24 Mar 2026 | Published: 31 Mar 2026
Abstract
Keywords
References
- 1.
Higgs, P.W. Broken Symmetries and the Masses of Gauge Bosons. Phys. Rev. Lett. 1964, 13, 508.
- 2.
Aad, G.; Abajyan, T.; Abbott, B.; et al. Observation of a new particle in the search for the Standard Model Higgs boson with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Phys. Lett. B 2012, 716, 1–29.
- 3.
Chatrchyan, S.; Khachatryan, V.; Sirunyan, A.M.; et al. Observation of a New Boson at a Mass of 125 GeV with the CMS Experiment at the LHC. Phys. Lett. B 2012, 716, 30–61.
- 4.
Apollinari, G.; Br¨uning, O.; Nakamoto, T.; et al. High Luminosity Large Hadron Collider HL-LHC. arXiv 2015, arXiv:1705.08830.
- 5.
FCC Collaboration. FCC Physics Opportunities: Future Circular Collider Conceptual Design Report Volume 1. Eur. Phys. J. C 2019, 79, 474.
- 6.
Abdallah, W.; Afanaciev, K.; Ahmad, S.; et al. CEPC Technical Design Report: Accelerator. Radiat. Detect. Technol. Methods 2024, 8, 1.
- 7.
Bambade, P., Barklow, T., Behnke, T.; et al. The International Linear Collider: A Global Project. arXiv 2019, arXiv:1903.01629.
- 8.
Charles, T.K., Giansiracusa, P.J., Lucas, T.G.; et al. The Compact Linear Collider (CLIC)—2018 Summary Report. arXiv 2018, arXiv:1812.06018.
- 9.
Accettura, C., Adrian, S., Agarwal, R.; et al. Interim report for the International Muon Collider Collaboration (IMCC). arXiv 2024, arXiv:2407.12450.
- 10.
Accettura, C.; Adams, D.; Agarwal, R.; et al. Towards a muon collider. Eur. Phys. J. C 2023, 83, 864.
- 11.
Bell, C.; Calzolari, D.; Carli, C.; et al. MAIA: A new detector concept for a 10 TeV muon collider. arXiv 2025, arXiv:2502.00181.
- 12.
De Florian Sabaris, D.E.; Grojean, C.; Pieri, M.; et al. Handbook of LHC Higgs Cross Sections: 4. Deciphering the Nature of the Higgs Sector. arXiv 2016, arXiv:1610.07922.
- 13.
Taliercio, A.; Mastrapasqua, P.; Caputo, C.; et al. Higgs Self Couplings Measurements at Future proton-proton Colliders: a Snowmass White Paper. arXiv 2022, arXiv:2203.08042.
- 14.
Agostinelli, S., Allison, J., Amako, K.A.; et al. GEANT4—A Simulation Toolkit. Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 2003, 506, 250.
- 15.
ILCsoftware. Available online: https://ilcsoft.desy.de/portal/ (accessed on 23 January 2026).
- 16.
Muon Collider. Software GitHub Folder. Available online: https://github.com/MuonColliderSoft (accessed on 23 January 2026).
- 17.
Gaede, F. Marlin and LCCD: Software tools for the ILC. Nucl. Instrum. Meth. A 2006, 559, 177.
- 18.
Marshall, J.S.; Thomson, M.A. The pandora particle flow algorithm. International Conference on Calorimetry for the High Energy Frontier. arXiv 2013, arXiv:1308.4537.
- 19.
Navas, S.; Amsler, C.; Gutsche, T.; et al. Rev. Part. Phys. Phys. Rev. D 2024, 110, 030001.
- 20.
Tumasyan, A., Adam, W., Andrejkovic, J.W.; et al. Identification of hadronic tau lepton decays using a deep neural network. J. Instrum. 2022, 17, P07023.
- 21.
Muennich, A. TauFinder: A Reconstruction Algorithm for τ Leptons at Linear Colliders; CERN: Geneve, Switzerland, 2010.
- 22.
Forslund, M.; Meade, P. High precision Higgs from high energy muon colliders. J. High Energy Phys. 2022, 8, 185.
- 23.
de Favereau, J.; Delaere, C.; Demin, P.; et al. DELPHES 3, A modular framework for fast simulation of a generic collider experiment. J. High Energy Phys. 2014, 2, 57.
- 24.
Valla, L. Higgs boson properties and tau lepton identification at the √s = 3 TeV Muon Collider; CERN: Gen`eve, Switzerland, 2024.
- 25.
Andreetto, P.; Casarsa, M.; Gianelle, A.; et al. Higgs Physics at a 10 TeV Muon Collider with the MUSIC Detector. PoS EPS-HEP2025 385. In Proceedings of the European Physical Society Conference on High Energy Physics (EPS-HEP2025), Marseille, France, 7–11 July 2025.
- 26.
The CMS Collaboration. A portrait of the Higgs boson by the CMS experiment ten years after the discovery. Nature 2022, 607, 60.
- 27.
The ATLAS Collaboration. A detailed map of Higgs boson interactions by the ATLAS experiment ten years after the discovery. Nature 2022, 607, 52.
- 28.
De Blas, J.; Cepeda, M.; D’Hondt, J.; et al. Higgs Boson Studies at Future Particle Colliders. J. High Energy Phys. 2020, 2020, 139.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Suite 4002 Level 4, 447 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia
General Inquiries: info@sciltp.com