Exploring anomalous HZγ couplings in γ-proton collisions at the LHC

The HZ gamma coupling, which is highly sensitive to the new physics beyond the standard model, is studied through the process pp -> p gamma p -> pHX at the LHC. To this purpose, an effective Lagrangian, in a model independent approach, with dimension six operators is considered in this paper. New interaction terms regarding beyond the standard model physics include the Higgs boson anomalous vertices in both CP-even and CP-odd structures. A detailed numerical analysis is performed to scrutinize the accurate constraints on the effective HZ gamma couplings and to discuss how far the corresponding bounds can be improved. This is achieved by testing all the efficient Higgs decay channels and increasing the integrated luminosity at three different forward detector acceptance regions. The numerical results propose that the Higgs photoproduction at the LHC, as a complementary channel, has a great potential of exploring the HZ gamma couplings. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.