A search is performed for the rare decay W$^\pm\to\pi^\pm\gamma$ in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. Data corresponding to an on W integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$ were collected during 2016 to 2018 with the CMS detector. This analysis exploits a novel search strategy based on W boson production in top quark pair events. An inclusive search for the W$^\pm\to\pi^\pm\gamma$ decay is not optimal at the LHC because of the high trigger thresholds. Instead, a trigger selection is exploited in which the W boson originating from one of the top quarks is used to tag the event in a leptonic decay. The W boson emerging from the other top quark is used to search for the W$^\pm\to\pi^\pm\gamma$ signature. Such decays are characterized by an isolated track pointing to a large energy deposit, and by an isolated photon of large transverse momentum. The presence of b quark jets reduces the background from the hadronization of light-flavor quarks and gluons. The W$^\pm\to\pi^\pm\gamma$ decay is not observed. An upper exclusion limit is set to this branching fraction, corresponding to 1.50 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$ at 95% confidence level, whereas the expected upper limit exclusion limit is 0.85 $^{+0.52}_{-0.29}$ $\times$ 10$^{-5}$.
The product of signal efficiency and acceptance per year and per lepton channel (muon or electron).
Expected and observed upper exclusion limits on the branching fraction of the decay of a W boson into a pion and a photon, using 2016 to 2018 data.
A search for a new heavy particle decaying to a pair of vector bosons (WW or WZ) is presented using data from the CMS detector corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ collected in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2016. One of the bosons is required to be a W boson decaying to e$\nu$ or $\mu\nu$, while the other boson is required to be reconstructed as a single massive jet with substructure compatible with that of a highly-energetic quark pair from a W or Z boson decay. The search is performed in the resonance mass range between 1.0 and 4.5 TeV. The largest deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed for a mass near 1.4 TeV and corresponds to a local significance of 2.5 standard deviations. The result is interpreted as an upper bound on the resonance production cross section. Comparing the excluded cross section values and the expectations from theoretical calculations in the bulk graviton and heavy vector triplet models, spin-2 WW resonances with mass smaller than 1.07 TeV and spin-1 WZ resonances lighter than 3.05 TeV, respectively, are excluded at 95% confidence level.
Exclusion limits on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a new spin-2 resonance decaying to WW, as a function of the resonance mass hypothesis.
Exclusion limits on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction for a new spin-1 resonance decaying to WZ, as a function of the resonance mass hypothesis.
Signal selection efficiency times acceptance as a function of resonance mass for a spin-2 bulk graviton decaying to WW and a spin-1 W' decaying to WZ.
The result of a search for flavor changing neutral currents (FCNC) through single top quark production in association with a photon is presented. The study is based on proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 8 TeV using data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.8 inverse femtobarns. The search for t gamma events where t to Wb and W to mu nu is conducted in final states with a muon, a photon, at least one hadronic jet with at most one being consistent with originating from a bottom quark, and missing transverse momentum. No evidence of single top quark production in association with a photon through a FCNC is observed. Upper limits at the 95% confidence level are set on the tu gamma and tc gamma anomalous couplings and translated into upper limits on the branching fraction of the FCNC top quark decays: B(t to u gamma) < 1.3E-4 and B(t to c gamma) < 1.7E-3. Upper limits are also set on the cross section of associated t gamma production in a restricted phase-space region. These are the most stringent limits currently available.
The expected and observed $95\%$ CL upper limits on the FCNC $tu\gamma$ and $tc\gamma$ cross sections times branching fraction, the anomalous couplings $\kappa_{tu\gamma}$ and $\kappa_{tc\gamma}$, and the corresponding branching fractions B($t \rightarrow u \gamma$)and B($t\rightarrow c \gamma$)at LO are given. The one and two standard deviation ($\sigma$) ranges on the LO expected limits are also presented.
The expected and observed $95\%$ CL upper limits on the FCNC $tu\gamma$ and $tc\gamma$ cross sections times branching fraction, the anomalous couplings $\kappa_{tu\gamma}$ and $\kappa_{tc\gamma}$, and the corresponding branching fractions B($t \rightarrow u \gamma$)and B($t\rightarrow c \gamma$)at NLO are given. The one and two standard deviation ($\sigma$) ranges on the NLO expected limits are also presented.
Upper limits on the signal cross sections are also determined for a restricted phase-space region in which the detector is fully efficient. This removes the need to extrapolate to phase-space regions where the analysis has little or no sensitivity. The fiducial region is defined as:.
We present a measurement of b jet transverse momentum (pt) spectra in proton-lead (pPb) collisions using a dataset corresponding to about 35 inverse nanobarns collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. Jets from b quark fragmentation are found by exploiting the long lifetime of hadrons containing a b quark through tagging methods using distributions of the secondary vertex mass and displacement. Extracted cross sections for b jets are scaled by the effective number of nucleon-nucleon collisions and are compared to a reference obtained from PYTHIA simulations of pp collisions. The PYTHIA-based estimate of the nuclear modification factor is found to be 1.22 +/- 0.15 (stat + syst pPb) +/- 0.27 (syst PYTHIA) averaged over all jets with pt between 55 and 400 GeV/c and with abs(eta[lab]) < 2. We also compare this result to predictions from models using perturbative calculations in quantum chromodynamics.
Distributions of the JP tagger discriminator before applying the SSV tagger selection.
Distributions of the JP tagger discriminator after applying the SSV tagger selection.
Distributions of the b-tagging efficiency as a function of the mistag rate of light jets for pp collisions in a PYTHIA simulation.
Results are reported on a search for decays of a pseudoscalar A boson into a Z boson and a light scalar h boson, where the Z boson decays into a pair of oppositely-charged electrons or muons, and the h boson decays into b anti-b. The search is based on data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy sqrt(s)=8 TeV collected with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns. The h boson is assumed to be the standard model-like Higgs boson with a mass of 125 GeV. With no evidence for signal, upper limits are obtained on the product of the production cross section and the branching fraction of the A boson in the Zh channel. Results are also interpreted in the context of two Higgs doublet models.
Observed and expected 95% CL upper limits on sigma A x B(A->Zh->llbb) as a function of mA in the narrow-width approximation, including statistical and systematic uncertainties.
Observed 95% CL upper limits on sigma A x B(A->Zh->llbb) as a function of mA and the A natural width Gamma.
Expected 95% CL upper limits on sigma A x B(A->Zh->llbb) as a function of mA and the A natural width Gamma.
A search for pair production of third-generation scalar leptoquarks and supersymmetric top quark partners, top squarks, in final states involving tau leptons and bottom quarks is presented. The search uses events from a data sample of proton-proton collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.7 inverse femtobarns, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC with sqrt(s) = 8 TeV. The number of observed events is found to be in agreement with the expected standard model background. Third-generation scalar leptoquarks with masses below 740 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level, assuming a 100% branching fraction for the leptoquark decay to a tau lepton and a bottom quark. In addition, this mass limit applies directly to top squarks decaying via an R-parity violating coupling lambda'[333]. The search also considers a similar signature from top squarks undergoing a chargino-mediated decay involving the R-parity violating coupling lambda'[3jk]. Each top squark decays to a tau lepton, a bottom quark, and two light quarks. Top squarks in this model with masses below 580 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. The constraint on the leptoquark mass is the most stringent to date, and this is the first search for top squarks decaying via lambda'[3jk].
The estimated backgrounds, observed event yields, and expected number of signal events for the leptoquark search. For the simulation-based entries, the statistical and systematic uncertainties are shown separately, in that order.
The estimated backgrounds, observed event yields, and expected number of signal events for the top squark search. For the simulation-based entries, the statistical and systematic uncertainties are shown separately, in that order.
Selection efficiencies in % for the signal in the leptoquark search, estimated from the simulation.
A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with at least three leptons is presented. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collisions with center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, was collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2012. The data are divided into exclusive categories based on the number of leptons and their flavor, the presence or absence of an opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pair (OSSF), the invariant mass of the OSSF pair, the presence or absence of a tagged bottom-quark jet, the number of identified hadronically decaying tau leptons, and the magnitude of the missing transverse energy and of the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta. The numbers of observed events are found to be consistent with the expected numbers from standard model processes, and limits are placed on new-physics scenarios that yield multilepton final states. In particular, scenarios that predict Higgs boson production in the context of supersymmetric decay chains are examined. We also place a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.3% on the branching fraction for the decay of a top quark to a charm quark and a Higgs boson (t to c H), which translates to a bound on the left- and right-handed top-charm flavor-violating Higgs Yukawa couplings, lambda[H, tc] and lambda[H, ct], respectively, of sqrt(abs(lambda[H, tc])^2 + abs(lambda[H, ct])^2) < 0.21.
Observed and expected numbers of events with four or more leptons with the scalar sum of jet transverse momentum values HT > 200 GeV. "On-Z" refers to events with at least one E+ E- or MU+ MU- (OSSF) pair with dilepton mass between 75 and 105 GeV, while "Off-Z" refers to events with one or two OSSF pairs, none of which fall in this mass range. The OSSFN designation refers to the number of E+ E- and MU+ MU- pairs in the event. Search channels binned in ET have been combined into coarse ET bins for the purposes of presentation.
Observed and expected numbers of events with four or more leptons with the scalar sum of jet transverse momentum values HT < 200 GeV. "On-Z" refers to events with at least one E+ E- or MU+ MU- (OSSF) pair with dilepton mass between 75 and 105 GeV, while "Off-Z" refers to events with one or two OSSF pairs, none of which fall in this mass range. The OSSFN designation refers to the number of E+ E- and MU+ MU- pairs in the event. Search channels binned in ET have been combined into coarse ET bins for the purposes of presentation.
Observed and expected numbers of events with exactly three leptons with the scalar sum of jet transverse momentum values HT > 200 GeV. "On-Z" refers to events with at least one E+ E- or MU+ MU- (OSSF) pair with dilepton mass between 75 and 105 GeV, while "Off-Z" refers to events with one or two OSSF pairs, none of which fall in this mass range. The OSSFN designation refers to the number of E+ E- and MU+ MU- pairs in the event. Search channels binned in ET have been combined into coarse ET bins for the purposes of presentation.
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