A search for low-mass dilepton resonances in Higgs boson decays is conducted in the four-lepton final state. The decay is assumed to proceed via a pair of beyond the standard model particles, or one such particle and a Z boson. The search uses proton-proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$, at a center-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. No significant deviation from the standard model expectation is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on model-independent Higgs boson decay branching fractions. Additionally, limits on dark photon and axion-like particle production, based on two specific models, are reported.
Proton-proton interactions resulting in final states with two photons are studied in a search for the signature of flavor-changing neutral current interactions of top quarks (t) and Higgs bosons (H). The analysis is based on data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. No significant excess above the background prediction is observed. Upper limits on the branching fractions ($\mathcal{B}$) of the top quark decaying to a Higgs boson and an up (u) or charm quark (c) are derived through a binned fit to the diphoton invariant mass spectrum. The observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper limits are found to be 0.019 (0.031)% for $\mathcal B$(t $\to$ Hu) and 0.073 (0.051)% for $\mathcal{B}$(t $\to$ Hc). These are the strictest upper limits yet determined.
A search for physics beyond the standard model (SM) in the final state with a hadron- ically decaying tau lepton and a neutrino is presented. This analysis is based on data recorded by the CMS experiment from proton-proton collisions at a center-of- mass energy of 13 TeV at the LHC, corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 138 fb−1. The transverse mass spectrum is analyzed for the presence of new physics. No significant deviation from the SM prediction is observed. Limits are set on the production cross section of a W′ boson decaying into a tau lepton and a neutrino. Lower limits are set on the mass of the sequential SM-like heavy charged vector bo- son and the mass of a quantum black hole. Upper limits are placed on the couplings of a new boson to the SM fermions. Constraints are put on a nonuniversal gauge interaction model and an effective field theory model. For the first time, upper lim- its on the cross section of t-channel leptoquark (LQ) exchange are presented. These limits are translated into exclusion limits on the LQ mass and on its coupling in the t-channel. The sensitivity of this analysis extends into the parameter space of LQ models that attempt to explain the anomalies observed in B meson decays. The limits presented for the various interpretations are the most stringent to date. Additionally, a model-independent limit is provided.
The discovery of the Higgs boson has led to new possible signatures for heavy resonance searches at the LHC. Since then, search channels including at least one Higgs boson plus another particle have formed an important part of the program of new physics searches. In this report, the status of these searches by the CMS Collaboration is reviewed. Searches are discussed for resonances decaying to two Higgs bosons, a Higgs and a vector boson, or a Higgs boson and another new resonance. All analyses use proton-proton collision data collected at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV in the years 2016-2018. A combination of the results of these searches is presented together with constraints on different beyond-the-standard model scenarios, including scenarios with extended Higgs sectors, heavy vector bosons and extra dimensions. Studies are shown for the first time by CMS on the validity of the narrow-width approximation in searches for the resonant production of a pair of Higgs bosons. The potential for a discovery at the High Luminosity LHC is also discussed.
The pseudorapidity ($\eta$) distributions of charged hadrons are measured using data collected at the highest ever nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}}$ = 5.36 TeV for collisions of lead-lead ions. The data were recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2022 and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 0.30 $\pm$ 0.03 $\mu$b$^{-1}$. Using the CMS silicon pixel detector, the yields of primary charged hadrons produced in the range $\vert\eta\vert$$\lt$ 2.6 are reported. The evolution of the midrapidity particle density as a function of collision centrality is also reported. In the 5% most central collisions, the charged-hadron $\eta$ density in the range $\vert\eta\vert$ $\lt$ 0.5 is found to be 2032 $\pm$ 91 (syst), with negligible statistical uncertainty. This result is consistent with an extrapolation from nucleus-nucleus collision data at lower center-of-mass energies. Comparisons are made to various Monte Carlo event generators and to previous measurements of lead-lead and xenon-xenon collisions at similar collision energies. These new data detail the dependence of particle production on the collision energy, initial collision geometry, and the size of the colliding nuclei.
The Large Hadron Collider at CERN, delivering proton-proton collisions at much higher energies and far higher luminosities than previous machines, has enabled a comprehensive programme of measurements of the standard model (SM) processes by the CMS experiment. These unprecedented capabilities facilitate precise measurements of the properties of a wide array of processes, the most fundamental being cross sections. The discovery of the Higgs boson and the measurement of its mass became the keystone of the SM. Knowledge of the mass of the Higgs boson allows precision comparisons of the predictions of the SM with the corresponding measurements. These measurements span the range from one of the most copious SM processes, the total inelastic cross section for proton-proton interactions, to the rarest ones, such as Higgs boson pair production. They cover the production of Higgs bosons, top quarks, single and multibosons, and hadronic jets. Associated parameters, such as coupling constants, are also measured. These cross section measurements can be pictured as a descending stairway, on which the lowest steps represent the rarest processes allowed by the SM, some never seen before.
A search is presented for rare decays of the Z and Higgs bosons to a photon and a J/$\psi$ or a $\psi$(2S) meson, with the charmonium state subsequentially decaying to a pair of muons. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 123 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected with the CMS detector at the LHC. No evidence for branching fractions of these rare decay channels larger than predicted in the standard model is observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set: $\mathcal{B}$(H $\to$ J/$\psi \gamma$) $\lt$ 2.6 $\times$ 10$^{-4}$, $\mathcal{B}$(H $\to$ $\psi$(2S)$\gamma$) $\lt$ 9.9 $\times$ 10$^{-4}$, $\mathcal{B}$(Z $\to$ J/$\psi \gamma$) $\lt$ 0.6 $\times$ 10$^{-6}$, and $\mathcal{B}$(Z $\to$ $\psi$(2S)$\gamma$) $\lt$ 1.3 $\times$ 10$^{-6}$. The ratio of the Higgs boson coupling modifiers $\kappa_\mathrm{c} / \kappa_\gamma$ is constrained to be in the interval ($-$157, $+$199) at 95% confidence level. Assuming $\kappa_\gamma = 1$, this interval becomes ($-$166, $+$208).
This Letter presents the first measurements of the groomed jet radius $R_\mathrm{g}$ and the jet girth $g$ in events with an isolated photon recoiling against a jet in lead-lead (PbPb) and proton-proton (pp) collisions at the LHC at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. The observables $R_\mathrm{g}$ and $g$ provide a quantitative measure of how narrow or broad a jet is. The analysis uses PbPb and pp data samples with integrated luminosities of 1.7 nb$^{-1}$ and 301 pb$^{-1}$, respectively, collected with the CMS experiment in 2018 and 2017. Events are required to have a photon with transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}^\gamma$$>$ 100 GeV and at least one jet back-to-back in azimuth with respect to the photon and with transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}^\text{jet}$ such that $p_\mathrm{T}^\text{jet} / p_\mathrm{T}^\gamma$$>$ 0.4. The measured $R_\mathrm{g}$ and $g$ distributions are unfolded to the particle level, which facilitates the comparison between the PbPb and pp results and with theoretical predictions. It is found that jets with $p_\mathrm{T}^\text{jet} / p_\mathrm{T}^\gamma$$>$ 0.8, i.e., those that closely balance the photon $p_\mathrm{T}^\gamma$, are narrower in PbPb than in pp collisions. Relaxing the selection to include jets with $p_\mathrm{T}^\text{jet} / p_\mathrm{T}^\gamma$$>$ 0.4 reduces the narrowing of the angular structure of jets in PbPb relative to the pp reference. This shows that selection bias effects associated with jet energy loss play an important role in the interpretation of jet substructure measurements.
A search is presented for baryon number violating interactions in top quark production and decay. The analysis uses data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected with the CMS detector at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Candidate events are selected by requiring two oppositely-charged leptons (electrons or muons) and exactly one jet identified as originating from a bottom quark. Multivariate discriminants are used to separate the signal from the background. No significant deviation from the standard model prediction is observed. Upper limits are placed on the strength of baryon number violating couplings. For the first time the production of single top quarks via baryon number violating interactions is studied. This allows the search to set the most stringent constraints to date on the branching fraction of the top quark decay to a lepton, an up-type quark (u or c), and a down-type quark (d, s, or b). The results improve the previous bounds by three to six orders of magnitude based on the fermion flavor combination of the baryon number violating interactions.
Despite the f$_0$(980) hadron having been discovered half a century ago, the question about its quark content has not been settled: it might be an ordinary quark-antiquark ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}}$) meson, a tetraquark ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}q\bar{q}}$) exotic state, a kaon-antikaon ($\mathrm{K\bar{K}}$) molecule, or a quark-antiquark-gluon ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}g}$) hybrid. This paper reports strong evidence that the f$_0$(980) state is an ordinary $\mathrm{q\bar{q}}$ meson, inferred from the scaling of elliptic anisotropies ($v_2$) with the number of constituent quarks ($n_\mathrm{q}$), as empirically established using conventional hadrons in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The f$_0$(980) state is reconstructed via its dominant decay channel f$_0$(980) $\to$$\pi^+\pi^-$, in proton-lead collisions recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, and its $v_2$ is measured as a function of transverse momentum ($p_\mathrm{T}$). It is found that the $n_q$ = 2 ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}}$ state) hypothesis is favored over $n_q$ = 4 ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}q\bar{q}}$ or $\mathrm{K\bar{K}}$ states) by 7.7, 6.3, or 3.1 standard deviations in the $p_\mathrm{T}$$\lt$ 10, 8, or 6 GeV/$c$ ranges, respectively, and over $n_\mathrm{q}$ = 3 ($\mathrm{q\bar{q}g}$ hybrid state) by 3.5 standard deviations in the $p_\mathrm{T}$$\lt$ 8 GeV/$c$ range. This result represents the first determination of the quark content of the f$_0$(980) state, made possible by using a novel approach, and paves the way for similar studies of other exotic hadron candidates.
Forum