The results of a search for a standard model-like Higgs boson decaying into two photons in the mass range between 70 and 110 GeV are presented. The analysis uses the data set collected by the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV corresponding to integrated luminosities of 36.3 fb$^{-1}$, 41.5 fb$^{-1}$ and 54.4 fb$^{-1}$ during the 2016, 2017, and 2018 LHC running periods, respectively. No significant excess over the background expectation is observed and 95% confidence level upper limits are set on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for decays of an additional Higgs boson into two photons. The maximum deviation with respect to the background is seen for a mass hypothesis of 95.4 GeV with a local (global) significance of 2.9 (1.3) standard deviations. The observed upper limit ranges from 15 to 73 fb.
A search for the production of a W boson and a Higgs boson through vector boson scattering (VBS) is presented, using CMS data from proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected from 2016 to 2018. The integrated luminosity of the data sample is 138 fb$^{-1}$. Selected events must be consistent with the presence of two jets originating from VBS, the leptonic decay of the W boson to an electron or muon, possibly also through an intermediate $\tau$ lepton, and a Higgs boson decaying into a pair of b quarks, reconstructed as either a single merged jet or two resolved jets. A measurement of the process as predicted by the standard model (SM) is performed alongside a study of beyond-the-SM (BSM) scenarios. The SM analysis sets an observed (expected) 95% confidence level upper limit of 14.3 (9.9) on the ratio of the measured VBS WH cross section to that expected by the SM. The BSM analysis, conducted within the so-called $\kappa$ framework, excludes all scenarios with $\lambda_\mathrm{WZ}$ $\lt$ 0 that are consistent with current measurements, where $\lambda_\mathrm{WZ}$ = $\kappa_\mathrm{W} / \kappa_\mathrm{Z}$ and $\kappa_\mathrm{W}$ and $\kappa_\mathrm{Z}$ are the HWW and HZZ coupling modifiers, respectively. The signficance of the exclusion is beyond 5 standard deviations, and it is consistent with the SM expectation of $\lambda_\mathrm{WZ}$ = 1.
A search is presented for new Higgs bosons in proton-proton (pp) collision events in which a same-sign top quark pair is produced in association with a jet, via the pp $\to$ tH/A $\to$ t$\mathrm{\bar{t}}$c and pp $\to$ tH/A $\to$ t$\mathrm{\bar{t}}$u processes. Here, H and A represent the extra scalar and pseudoscalar boson, respectively, of the second Higgs doublet in the generalized two-Higgs-doublet model (g2HDM). The search is based on pp collision data collected at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Final states with a same-sign lepton pair in association with jets and missing transverse momentum are considered. New Higgs bosons in the 200-1000 GeV mass range and new Yukawa couplings between 0.1 and 1.0 are targeted in the search, for scenarios in which either H or A appear alone, or in which they coexist and interfere. No significant excess above the standard model prediction is observed. Exclusion limits are derived in the context of the g2HDM.
The first evidence for the standard model production of a top quark in association with a W boson and a Z boson is reported. The measurement is performed in multilepton final states, where the Z boson is reconstructed via its decays to electron or muon pairs and the W boson decays either to leptons or hadrons. The analysed data were recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2016-2018 in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The measured cross section is 354 $\pm$ 54 (stat) $\pm$ 95 (syst) fb, and corresponds to a statistical significance of 3.4 standard deviations.
A search for the lepton flavor violating $\tau$$\to$ 3$\mu$ decay is performed using proton-proton collision events at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2017-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 97.7 fb$^{-1}$. Tau leptons produced in both heavy-flavor hadron and W boson decays are exploited in the analysis. No evidence for the decay is observed. The results of this search are combined with an earlier null result based on data collected in 2016 to obtain a total integrated luminosity of 131 fb$^{-1}$. The observed (expected) upper limits on the branching fraction $\mathcal{B}$($\tau$$\to$ 3$\mu$) at confidence levels of 90 and 95% are 2.9 $\times$ 10$^{-8}$ (2.4 $\times$ 10$^{-8}$) and 3.6 $\times$ 10$^{-8}$ (3.0 $\times$ 10$^{-8}$), respectively.
The results of a search for the production of two scalar bosons in final states with two photons and two tau leptons are presented. The search considers both nonresonant production of a Higgs boson pair, HH, and resonant production via a new boson X which decays either to HH or to H and a new scalar Y. The analysis uses up to 138 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data, recorded between 2016 and 2018 by the CMS experiment at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No evidence for signal is found in the data. For the nonresonant production, the observed (expected) upper limit at 95% confidence level (CL) on the HH production cross section is set at 930 (740) fb, corresponding to 33 (26) times the standard model prediction. At 95% CL, HH production is observed (expected) to be excluded for values of $κ_λ$ outside the range between $-$12 ($-$9.4) and 17 (15). Observed (expected) upper limits at 95% CL for the XHH cross section are found to be within 160 to 2200 (200 to 1800) fb, depending on the mass of X. In the X $\to$ Y($γγ$)H($ττ$) search, the observed (expected) upper limits on the product of the production cross section and decay branching fractions vary between 0.059$-$1.2 fb (0.087$-$0.68 fb). For the X $\to$ Y($γγ$)H($ττ$) search the observed (expected) upper limits on the product of the production cross section and Y $to$ $γγ$ branching fraction vary between 0.69$-$15 fb (0.73$-$8.3 fb) in the low Y mass search, tightening constraints on the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model, and between 0.64$-$10 fb (0.70$-$7.6 fb) in the high Y mass search.
A search for resonances in top quark pair ($\text{t}\bar{\text{t}}$) production in final states with two charged leptons and multiple jets is presented, based on proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, corresponding to 138 fb$^{-1}$. The analysis explores the invariant mass of the $\text{t}\bar{\text{t}}$ system and two angular observables that provide direct access to the correlation of top quark and antiquark spins. A significant excess of events is observed near the kinematic $\text{t}\bar{\text{t}}$ threshold compared to the nonresonant production predicted by fixed-order perturbative quantum chromodynamics (pQCD). The observed enhancement is consistent with the production of a color-singlet pseudoscalar ($^1$S$^{[1]}_0$) quasi-bound toponium state, as predicted by nonrelativistic quantum chromodynamics. Using a simplified model for $^1$S$^{[1]}_0$ toponium, the cross section of the excess above the pQCD prediction is measured to be 8.8 $^{+1.2}_{-1.4}$ pb.
A search for the production of a single top quark in association with invisible particles is performed using proton-proton collision data collected with the CMS detector at the LHC at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. In this search, a flavor-changing neutral current produces a single top quark or antiquark and an invisible state nonresonantly. The invisible state consists of a hypothetical spin-1 particle acting as a new mediator and decaying to two spin-1/2 dark matter candidates. The analysis searches for events in which the top quark or antiquark decays hadronically. No significant excess of events compatible with that signature is observed. Exclusion limits at 95% confidence level are placed on the masses of the spin-1 mediator and the dark matter candidates, and are compared to constraints from the dark matter relic density measurements. In a vector (axial-vector) coupling scenario, masses of the spin-1 mediator are excluded up to 1.85 (1.85) TeV with an expectation of 2.0 (2.0) TeV, whereas masses of the dark matter candidates are excluded up to 0.75 (0.55) TeV with an expectation of 0.85 (0.65) TeV.
A search is presented for a new scalar resonance, X, decaying to a standard model Higgs boson and another new scalar particle, Y, in the final state where the Higgs boson decays to a $\mathrm{b\bar{b}}$ pair, while the Y particle decays to a pair of photons. The search is performed in the mass range 240$-$100 \GeV for the resonance X, and in the mass range 70$-$800 GeV for the particle Y, using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 132 fb$^{-1}$. In general, the data are found to be compatible with the standard model expectation. Observed (expected) upper limits at 95% confidence level on the product of the production cross section and the relevant branching fraction are extracted for the X $\to$ YH process, and are found to be within the range of 0.05$-$2.69 (0.08$-$1.94) fb, depending on $m_\mathrm{X}$ and $m_\mathrm{Y}$. The most significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed for X and Y masses of 300 and 77 GeV, respectively, with a local (global) significance of 3.33 (0.65) standard deviations.
Several new physics models including versions of supersymmetry (SUSY) characterized by $R$-parity violation (RPV) or with additional hidden sectors predict the production of events with top quarks, low missing transverse momentum, and many additional quarks or gluons. The results of a search for top squarks decaying to two top quarks and six additional light-flavor quarks or gluons are reported. The search employs a novel machine learning method for background estimation from control samples in data using decorrelated discriminators. The search is performed using events with 0, 1, or 2 electrons or muons in conjunction with at least six jets. No requirement is placed on the magnitude of the missing transverse momentum. The result is based on a sample of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV corresponding to 138 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2016$-$2018. The data are used to determine upper limits on the top squark pair production cross section in the frameworks of RPV and stealth SUSY. Models with top squark masses less than 700 (930) GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level for RPV (stealth) SUSY scenarios.
Forum