ENERGY-SPECTRA AND ENERGY CORRELATIONS IN THE DECAY H-]ZZ-]MU(+)MU(-)MU(+)MU(-)

It is shown that in the sequential decay H --> ZZ --> (f1fBAR1) + (f2fBAR2), the energy distributions of the final state particles provides a simple and powerful test of the HZZ vertex. For a standard Higgs boson, the energy spectrum of any final fermion, in the rest frame of H, is predicted to be dGAMMA/dx approximately 1 + beta4 - 2(x - 1)2, with beta = square-root1 - 4m(z)2/m(H)2 and 1 - beta less-than-or-equal-to x = 4E/m(H) less-than-or-equal-to 1 + beta. By contrast, the spectrum for a pseudoscalar Higgs is dGAMMA/dx approximately beta2 + (x - 1)2. There are characteristic energy correlations between f1 and f2 and between f1 and f2. These considerations are applied to the ''gold-plated'' reaction H --> ZZ --> mu+ mu- mu+ mu-, including possible effects of CP-violation in the HZZ coupling. Our formalism also yields the energy spectra and correlations of leptons in the decay H --> W+ W- --> l+ nu(l)l- nuBAR(l).