Exclusive Weak Radiative Higgs Decays in the Standard Model and Beyond

We perform a detailed study of the exclusive Higgs decays $h\to MZ$ and $h\to MW$,where$M$ is a pseudoscalar or vector meson, using the QCD factorization approach. We allow for the presence of new-physics effects in the form of modified Higgs couplings to gauge bosons and fermions, including the possibility of flavor-changing Higgs couplings. We show that the decays $h\to VZ$exhibitastrongsensitivitytotheeffectiveCP-evenandCP-odd$h\gamma Z$couplings\mathrm{.}Whencombinedwithameasurementofthe$h\to\gamma Z$ decay rate, this can be used to extract these couplings up to a sign ambiguity in the CP-odd coefficient. Some of the $h\to MW$ decay modes can be used to probe for flavor-violating Higgs couplings involving the top quark.