We consider scalar extensions of the Standard Model (SM) and their effective field theoretic generalizations to illustrate the phenomenological connection between precision measurements of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon aμ, precision Higgs measurements, and direct collider sensitivity. To this end, we consider charged beyond Standard Model (BSM) scalar sectors of the Zee-Babu type for which we develop a consistent and complete dimension-5 and -6 effective field theory extensions. This enables us to track generic new physics effects that interact with the SM predominantly via radiative interactions. While the operator space is high dimensional, the intersection of exotics searches at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), Higgs signal strength, and anomalous muon magnetic measurements is manageably small. We find that consistency of LHC Higgs observations and aμ requires a significant deformation of the new states’ electroweak properties. Evidence in searches for doubly charged scalars as currently pursued by the LHC experiments can be used to further tension the BSMEFT parameter space and resolve blind directions in the effective field theory (EFT)-extended Zee-Babu scenario.

• Received 27 August 2021
• Accepted 11 December 2021

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.105.016019

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP³.

Published by the American Physical Society