Search for decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of pseudoscalar particles decaying into $b\bar{b}\tau^+\tau^-$ using $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV with the ATLAS detector

The ATLAS collaboration
Aad, Georges , Aakvaag, Erlend , Abbott, Braden Keim , Abdelhameed, Sara , Abeling, Kira , Abicht, Nils Julius , Abidi, Haider , Aboelela, Mohammed , Aboulhorma, Asmaa , Abramowicz, Halina
Phys.Rev.D 110 (2024) 052013, 2024.

Abstract (data abstract)
This paper presents a search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson into a pair of new pseudoscalar particles, $H\rightarrow aa$, where one pseudoscalar decays into a $b$-quark pair and the other decays into a $\tau$-lepton pair, in the mass range $12\leq m_{a}\leq 60$ GeV. The analysis uses $pp$ collision data at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of $140~\mathrm{fb}^{-1}$. No significant excess above the Standard Model (SM) prediction is observed. Assuming the SM Higgs boson production cross-section, the search sets upper limits at 95\% confidence level on the branching ratio of Higgs bosons decaying into $b\bar{b}\tau^+\tau^-$, $\mathcal{B}$($H \rightarrow aa \rightarrow b\bar{b}\tau^+\tau^-$), between 2.2\% and 3.9\% depending on the pseudoscalar mass.

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