FLAVOR-CHANGING HIGGS-BOSON TRANSITIONS

The flavor-changing Higgs-boson vertex qiqjH where H is the Higgs boson and qi,qj are quarks with flavors i,j (i j), respectively, is calculated in the standard model for all values of external and internal masses. It is then used to determine the bbH decay width, where b is a charge - fourth-family quark. We find that for a range of masses the mode bbH can be very important and even be the dominant decay of the b. If the fourth family exists, this decay may provide a way to detect the still elusive Higgs boson. © 1990 The American Physical Society.