Search for flavour-changing neutral-current couplings between the top quark and the Higgs boson in multi-lepton final states in 13 TeV $pp$ collisions with the ATLAS detector

The ATLAS collaboration Aad, Georges ; Aakvaag, Erlend ; Abbott, Braden Keim ; et al.
CERN-EP-2024-070, 2024.
Inspire Record 2773613 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.150998

A search is presented for flavour-changing neutral-current interactions involving the top quark, the Higgs boson and an up-type quark ($q=u,c$) with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis considers leptonic decays of the top quark along with Higgs boson decays into two $W$ bosons, two $Z$ bosons or a $\tau^{+}\tau^{-}$ pair. It focuses on final states containing either two leptons (electrons or muons) of the same charge or three leptons. The considered processes are $t\bar{t}$ and $Ht$ production. For the $t\bar{t}$ production, one top quark decays via $t\to Hq$. The proton-proton collision data set analysed amounts to 140 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. No significant excess beyond Standard Model expectations is observed and upper limits are set on the $t\to Hq$ branching ratios at 95% confidence level, amounting to observed (expected) limits of $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hu)<2.8\,(3.0) \times 10^{-4}$ and $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hc)<3.3\,(3.8) \times 10^{-4}$. Combining this search with other searches for $tHq$ flavour-changing neutral-current interactions previously conducted by ATLAS, considering $H\to b\bar{b}$ and $H\to\gamma\gamma$ decays, as well as $H\to\tau^{+}\tau^{-}$ decays with one or two hadronically decaying $\tau$-leptons, yields observed (expected) upper limits on the branching ratios of $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hu)<2.6\,(1.8) \times 10^{-4}$ and $\mathcal{B}(t\to Hc)<3.4\,(2.3) \times 10^{-4}$.

53 data tables

Pre-fit background composition of the SR$2\ell$ Dec. The table shows the event yields as opposed to just the percentages of the relevant background processes.

Pre-fit background composition of the SR$2\ell$ Prod. The table shows the event yields as opposed to just the percentages of the relevant background processes.

Pre-fit background composition of the SR$3\ell$ Dec. The table shows the event yields as opposed to just the percentages of the relevant background processes.

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Search for nearly mass-degenerate higgsinos using low-momentum mildly-displaced tracks in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The ATLAS collaboration Aad, Georges ; Aakvaag, Erlend ; Abbott, Braden Keim ; et al.
CERN-EP-2024-012, 2024.
Inspire Record 2751400 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.146944

Higgsinos with masses near the electroweak scale can solve the hierarchy problem and provide a dark matter candidate, while detecting them at the LHC remains challenging if their mass-splitting is $\mathcal{O}$(1 GeV). This Letter presents a novel search for nearly mass-degenerate higgsinos in events with an energetic jet, missing transverse momentum, and a low-momentum track with a significant transverse impact parameter using 140 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment. For the first time since LEP, a range of mass-splittings between the lightest charged and neutral higgsinos from 0.3 GeV to 0.9 GeV is excluded at 95% confidence level, with a maximum reach of approximately 170 GeV in the higgsino mass.

31 data tables

Number of expected and observed data events in the SR (top), and the model-independent upper limits obtained from their consistency (bottom). The symbol $\tau_{\ell}$ ($\tau_{h}$) refers to fully-leptonic (hadron-involved) tau decays. The Others category includes contributions from minor background processes including $t\bar{t}$, single-top and diboson. The individual uncertainties can be correlated and do not necessarily sum up in quadrature to the total uncertainty. The bottom section shows the observed 95% CL upper limits on the visible cross-section ($\langle\epsilon\sigma\rangle_{\mathrm{obs}}^{95}$), on the number of generic signal events ($S_{\mathrm{obs}}^{95}$) as well as the expected limit ($S_{\mathrm{exp}}^{95}$) given the expected number (and $\pm 1\sigma$ deviations from the expectation) of background events.

Expected (dashed black line) and observed (solid red line) 95% CL exclusion limits on the higgsino simplified model being considered. These are shown with $\pm 1\sigma_{\mathrm{exp}}$ (yellow band) from experimental systematic and statistical uncertainties, and with $\pm 1\sigma_{\mathrm{theory}}^{\mathrm{SUSY}}$ (red dotted lines) from signal cross-section uncertainties, respectively. The limits set by the latest ATLAS searches using the soft lepton and disappearing track signatures are illustrated by the blue and green regions, respectively, while the limit imposed by the LEP experiments is shown in gray. The dot-dashed gray line indicates the predicted mass-splitting for the pure higgsino scenario.

Expected (dashed black line) and observed (solid red line) 95% CL exclusion limits on the higgsino simplified model being considered. These are shown with $\pm 1\sigma_{\mathrm{exp}}$ (yellow band) from experimental systematic and statistical uncertainties, and with $\pm 1\sigma_{\mathrm{theory}}^{\mathrm{SUSY}}$ (red dotted lines) from signal cross-section uncertainties, respectively. The limits set by the latest ATLAS searches using the soft lepton and disappearing track signatures are illustrated by the blue and green regions, respectively, while the limit imposed by the LEP experiments is shown in gray. The dot-dashed gray line indicates the predicted mass-splitting for the pure higgsino scenario.

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