We show that, in the present inclusive searches for the Higgs boson at the LHC, a fermiophobic Higgs mimics the standard-model-like Higgs if its mass is around 125 GeV. For that mass the order-of-magnitude reduction of fermiophobic Higgs production cross sections is compensated by a corresponding increase in the Higgs branching fraction into gamma gamma, while the WW*, ZZ*, Z gamma signal yields are predicted to be somewhat smaller. The excess seen in the ATLAS and CMS fermiophobic Higgs boson searches in the gamma gamma channel, including the exclusive vector-boson-fusion analysis, could point to a fermiophobic rather than a standard-model Higgs boson, lithe Higgs boson will turn out to be fermiophobic, many of our present ideas of new physics should be revised. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
