Higgs boson production in photon-photon collision at ILC: a comparative study in different little Higgs models

We study the process gamma gamma -> h -> b (b) over bar at ILC as a probe of different little Higgs models, including the simplest little Higgs model (SLH), the littlest Higgs model (LH), and two types of littlest Higgs models with T-parity (LHT-I, LHT-II). Compared with the Standard Model (SM) prediction, the production rate is found to be sizably altered in these little Higgs models and, more interestingly, different models give different predictions. We find that the production rate can be possibly enhanced only in the LHT-II for some part of the parameter space, while in all other cases the rate is suppressed. The suppression can be 10% in the LH and as much as 60% in both the SLH and the LHT-I/LHT-II. The severe suppression in the SLH happens for a large tan beta and a small m(h), in which the new decay mode h -> eta eta (eta is a light pseudo-scalar) is dominant; while for the LHT-I/LHT-II the large suppression occurs when integral and m(h) are both small so that the new decay mode h -> A(H)A(H) is dominant. Therefore, the precision measurement of such a production process at the ILC will allow for a test of these models and even distinguish between different scenarios.