The two-Higgs-doublet model (2HDM) is an extension of the Standard Model of particle physics.[1][2] 2HDM models are one of the natural choices for beyond-SM models containing two Higgs doublets instead of just one. There are also models with more than two Higgs doublets, for example three-Higgs-doublet models etc.[3]
The addition of the second Higgs doublet leads to a richer phenomenology as there are five physical scalar states viz., the CP even neutral Higgs bosonsh and H (where H is heavier than h by convention), the CP odd pseudoscalarA and two charged Higgs bosons H±. The discovered Higgs boson is measured to be CP even, so one can map either h or H with the observed Higgs. A special case occurs when , the alignment limit, in which the lighter CP even Higgs boson h has couplings exactly like the SM-Higgs boson.[4] In another limit such limit, where , the heavier CP even boson, i.e. H is SM-like, leaving h to be the lighter than the discovered Higgs; however, it is important to note that experiments have strongly pointed towards a value for that is close to 1.[5]
Such a model can be described in terms of six physical parameters: four Higgs masses (), the ratio of the two vacuum expectation values () and the mixing angle () which diagonalizes the mass matrix of the neutral CP even Higgses. The SM uses only 2 parameters: the mass of the Higgs and its vacuum expectation value.
The masses of the H and A bosons could be below 1 TeV and the CMS has conducted searches around this range but no significant excess above the standard model prediction has been observed.[6][7]
Classification
Two-Higgs-doublet models can introduce flavor-changing neutral currents which have not been observed so far. The Glashow-Weinberg condition, requiring that each group of fermions (up-type quarks, down-type quarks and charged leptons) couples exactly to one of the two doublets, is sufficient to avoid the prediction of flavor-changing neutral currents.
Depending on which type of fermions couples to which doublet , one can divide two-Higgs-doublet models into the following classes:[8][9]