Taming the off-shell Higgs boson

We study the off-shell Higgs data in the process pp → h(*) → Z(*)Z(*) → 4l, to constrain deviations of the Higgs couplings. We point out that this channel can be used to resolve the long- and short-distance contributions to Higgs production by gluon fusion and can thus be complementary to $$pp o htar t$$ in measuring the top Yukawa coupling. Our analysis, performed in the context of effective field theory, shows that current data do not allow drawing any model-independent conclusions. We study the prospects at future hadron colliders, including the high-luminosity LHC and accelerators with higher energy, up to 100 TeV. The available QCD calculations and the theoretical uncertainties affecting our analysis are also briefly discussed