Prospects for Heavy Scalar Searches at the LHeC

In this paper, we study the prospects of the proposed Large Hadron electron Collider (LHeC) in the search for heavy neutral scalar particles. We consider a minimal model with one additional complex scalar singlet that interacts with the Standard Model (SM) via mixing with the Higgs doublet, giving rise to an SM-like Higgs boson h1 and a heavy scalar particle h2. Both scalar particles are produced via vector boson fusion and can be tested via their decays into pairs of SM particles, analogously to the SM Higgs boson. Using multivariate techniques, we show that the LHeC is sensitive to h2 with masses between 200 and 800 GeV down to scalar mixing of sin2α ∼ 10−3.