ENHANCING THE HEAVY HIGGS-BOSON -] WW SIGNAL AT HADRON-HADRON COLLIDERS

The jet-jet profile methods that we developed to enhance the heavy Higgs boson --> ZZ signal over its backgrounds at a proton-proton collider' energy of 40 TeV are extended to the heavy Higgs boson --> WW signal and backgrounds. The dominant background is now the pair production of top quarks via the subprocess gg --> ttBAR. The process qg --> Wq also contributes significantly, and backgrounds from the production of top quarks via the subprocess bg --> Wt and WW continuum are also included in the analysis but are less important. To enhance the signal, a profile analysis is performed on both the ''toward side'' (the W --> lnu trigger side) and on the ''away side'' (the W --> jet-jet system). We define observables that help distinguish between the transverse energy distribution of the signal and of the backgrounds in an electromagnetic and/or hadronic calorimeter system. By making cuts on both the toward- and away-side observables, signal to background enhancement factors around 1000 can be obtained.