We study Higgs boson production associated with single top or anti-top via $t$-channel weak boson exchange at the LHC. The process is an ideal probe of the top quark Yukawa coupling, because we can measure the relative phase of $htt$ and $hWW$ couplings, thanks to the significant interference between the two amplitudes. By choosing the emitted $W$ momentum along the polar axis in the $th\,(\bar{ t}h)$ rest frame, we obtain the helicity amplitudes for all the contributing subprocesses analytically, with possible CP phase of the Yukawa coupling. We study the azimuthal asymmetry between the $W$ emission and the $Wb\,(\bar{ b})\to t(\bar{ t})\,h$ scattering planes, as well as several $t$ and $\bar{ t}$ polarization asymmetries as a signal of CP violating phase in the $htt$ coupling. Both the azimuthal asymmetry and the polarization perpendicular to the scattering plane are found to have the opposite sign between the top and anti-top events. We identify the origin of the sign of asymmetries, and propose the possibility of direct CP violation test in $pp$ collisions by comparing the top and anti-top polarization at the LHC.
Categories: hep-ph