Probing the nature of the Higgs-like Boson via h -> VF decays

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We give a general decomposition of the h -> VF amplitude where V=W,Z and F is a generic leptonic or hadronic final state, in the standard model (SM), and in the context of a general effective field theory. The differential distributions for F=l+l-, l nu (l =e, mu) are reported, and we show how such distributions can be used to determine modified Higgs couplings that cannot be directly extracted from a global fit to Higgs signal strengths. We also demonstrate how rare h -> VP decays, where P is a single hadron, with SM rates in the 10⁻⁵ range, can be used to provide complementary information on the couplings of the newly discovered Higgs-like scalar and are an interesting probe of the vacuum structure of the theory.