Search for an exotic decay of the Higgs boson into a Z boson and a pseudoscalar particle in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV

The CMS collaboration
Phys.Lett.B 852 (2024) 138582, 2024.

Abstract (data abstract)
A search for an exotic decay of the Higgs boson to a Z boson and a light pseudoscalar particle (a), decaying to a pair of leptons and a pair of photons, respectively, is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision data at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The analysis probes pseudoscalar masses $m_{a}$ between 1 and 30 GeV, leading to two pairs of well-isolated leptons and photons. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the Higgs boson production cross section times its branching fraction to two leptons and two photons. The observed (expected) limits are in the range of 1.1-17.8 (1.7-17.9) fb within the probed $m_{a}$ interval. An excess of data above the expected standard model background with a local (global) significance of 2.6 (1.3) standard deviations is observed for a mass hypothesis of $m_{a}$ = 3 GeV. Limits on models involving axion-like particles, formulated as an effective field theory, are also reported.

  • Cross-section limits

    Data from Figure7

    10.17182/hepdata.145073.v1/t1

    Exclusion limits on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction, as a function of the pseudoscalar...

  • Axion-like particles model limits

    Data from Figure8

    10.17182/hepdata.145073.v1/t2

    Exclusion limits on $C_{Zh}^{eff}$, as a function of the pseudoscalar mass hypothesis.

  • Signal efficiency times acceptance in electron channel

    Data from Figure5 a

    10.17182/hepdata.145073.v1/t3

    Product of detector efficiency and analysis acceptance for signal samples with various $m_a$ values for the electron channel.

  • Signal efficiency times acceptance in muon channel

    Data from Figure5 b

    10.17182/hepdata.145073.v1/t4

    Product of detector efficiency and analysis acceptance for signal samples with various $m_a$ values for the muon channel.

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