Protons consist of three valence quarks, two up-quarks and one down-quark, held together by gluons and a sea of quark-antiquark pairs. Collectively, quarks and gluons are referred to as partons. In a proton-proton collision, typically only one parton of each proton undergoes a hard scattering - referred to as single-parton scattering - leaving the remainder of each proton only slightly disturbed. Here, we report the study of double- and triple-parton scatterings through the simultaneous production of three J/$\psi$ mesons, which consist of a charm quark-antiquark pair, in proton-proton collisions recorded with the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. We observed this process - reconstructed through the decays of J/$\psi$ mesons into pairs of oppositely charged muons - with a statistical significance above five standard deviations. We measured the inclusive fiducial cross section to be 272 $^{+141}_{-104}$ (stat) $\pm$ 17 (syst) fb, and compared it to theoretical expectations for triple-J/$\psi$ meson production in single-, double- and triple-parton scattering scenarios. Assuming factorization of multiple hard-scattering probabilities in terms of single-parton scattering cross sections, double- and triple-parton scattering are the dominant contributions for the measured process.
Dimuon invariant mass ($m$), proper decay-length ($L$), transverse momentum ($p_{T}$), rapidity ($y$), and azimuthal angle ($\phi$) of each of the three $J/\psi$ candidates measured in the six triple-$J/\psi$ events passing our selection criteria.
Measured DPS effective cross section
$pp \rightarrow J/\psi J/\psi J/\psi X~$ fiducial cross section
The cross sections for inclusive and Mueller-Navelet dijet production are measured as a function of the rapidity separation between the jets in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 2.76 TeV for jets with transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}$$\gt$ 35 GeV and rapidity $\vert y\vert$$\lt$ 4.7. Various dijet production cross section ratios are also measured. A veto on additional jets with $p_\mathrm{T}$$\gt$ 20 GeV is introduced to improve the sensitivity to the effects of the Balitsky-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov (BFKL) evolution. The measurement is compared with the predictions of various Monte Carlo models based on leading-order and next-to-leading-order calculations including the Dokshitzer-Gribov-Lipatov-Altarelli-Parisi leading-logarithm (LL) parton shower as well as the LL BFKL resummation.
Summary of the systematic uncertainties on the cross section dσincl/d∆y.
Summary of the systematic uncertainties on the cross section dσMN/d∆y.
Summary of the systematic uncertainties on the ratio Rincl.
Inclusive and differential cross sections of single top quark production in association with a Z boson are measured in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$ recorded by the CMS experiment. Events are selected based on the presence of three leptons, electrons or muons, associated with leptonic Z boson and top quark decays. The measurement yields an inclusive cross section of 87.9 $_{-7.3}^{+7.5}$ (stat) $_{-6.0}^{+7.3}$ (syst) fb for a dilepton invariant mass greater than 30 GeV, in agreement with standard model (SM) calculations and the most precise determination to date. The ratio between the cross sections for the top quark and the top antiquark production in association with a Z boson is measured as 2.37 $_{-0.42}^{+0.56}$ (stat) ${}_{-0.13}^{+0.27}$ (syst). Differential measurements at parton and particle levels are performed for the first time. Several kinematic observables are considered to study the modeling of the process. Results are compared to theoretical predictions with different assumptions on the source of the initial-state b quark and found to be in agreement, within the uncertainties. Additionally, the spin asymmetry, which is sensitive to the top quark polarization, is determined from the differential distribution of the polarization angle at parton level to be 0.54 $\pm$ 0.16 (stat) $\pm$ 0.06 (syst), in agreement with SM predictions.
Numerical results of inclusive cross section measurements. Each row represents a measurement: "tZq" for fully inclusive, "tZq_top" for the top quark channel, "tZq_antitop" for the top antiquark channel, "ratio" for the ratio measurement. The columns are the central value, statistical error up/down, systematic error up/down. All values are in fb, except for the ratio (dimensionless).
Numerical representation of impact plot.
Simulated signal, total background, and observed data in the signal category with exactly 1 b jet and 2-3 jets for the three data-taking years combined. For the uncertainty on the signal and background, both the total (systematic+statistical) and statistical uncertainties are provided. The uncertainty on the data is the (statistical) Poisson uncertainty. Note that this is the prefit version.
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.
Expected and observed 95\% CL upper limits on the branching fraction of the top quark decaying to the Higgs boson and a light-flavor quark (either an up or a charm quark)
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.
Exclusion limit for BrHXX_Br2Xee
Exclusion limit for BrHXX_Br2Xmumu
Exclusion limit for BrHXX_Br2Xll
Searches are conducted for new spin-0 or spin-1 bosons using events where a Higgs boson with mass $125$ GeV decays into four leptons ($\ell =$$e$,$\mu$). This decay is presumed to occur via an intermediate state which contains two on-shell, promptly decaying bosons: $H \rightarrow XX/ZX \rightarrow 4\ell$, where the new boson $X$ has a mass between 1 and 60 GeV. The search uses $pp$ collision data collected with the ATLAS detector at the LHC with an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$ at a centre-of-mass energy $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV. The data are found to be consistent with Standard Model expectations. Limits are set on fiducial cross sections and on the branching ratio of the Higgs boson to decay into $XX/ZX$, improving those from previous publications by a factor between two and four. Limits are also set on mixing parameters relevant in extensions of the Standard Model containing a dark sector where $X$ is interpreted to be a dark boson.
Distribution of $\langle m_{\ell\ell}\rangle$ for events selected in the HM $H\to XX \to 4\ell$ $\, ( 15 \,\text{GeV} < m_{X} < 60 \,\text{GeV})$ analysis. (Pre-fit background expectations and signal templates for $m_{Z_d} = 20 \,\text{GeV}$, $35 \,\text{GeV}$, and $55 \,\text{GeV}$ are given. The latter's yields are normalized with $\sigma(pp\to H\to Z_dZ_d\to 4\ell) =\frac{1}{10}\sigma_{\textrm{SM}}(pp\to H\to ZZ^*\to 4\ell)$.
Distribution of $\langle m_{\ell\ell}\rangle$ for events selected in the LM $H\to XX \to 4\mu$ $( 1 \,\text{GeV} < m_{X} < 15 \, \text{GeV} )$ analysis. The regions of 2 GeV to 4.4 GeV, and 8 GeV to 12 GeV are each excluded by the quarkonia veto. No data events pass this selection. Background expectations are pre-fit. Signal templates for $m_{Z_d} = 2 \,\text{GeV}$, $6 \,\text{GeV}$, and $15 \,\text{GeV}$ are given. All signal yields are normalized with $\sigma(pp\to H\to aa\to 4\mu) = \frac{1}{10}\sigma_{\textrm{SM}}(pp\to H\to ZZ^*\to 4\mu) = 0.15 \text{ fb}$ .
Distribution of $m_{34}$ for data and background events in the mass range $115 \,\text{GeV} < m_{4\ell} < 130 \,\text{GeV}$ after the $H\to ZX\to 4\ell$ selection. The background yield for the $H \to ZZ^* \to 4\ell$ process is post-fit and constrained to $1.2 \pm 0.16$ times the Standard Model expectation. Three $H \to ZZ_d \to 4\ell$ signal templates are shown for $Z_d$ masses of $m_{Z_d} = 20 \,\text{GeV}$, $35 \,\text{GeV}$, and $55 \,\text{GeV}$. They are normalized to a branching ratio of $\textrm{BR}(H\rightarrow ZZ_d \rightarrow 4\ell) = \frac{1}{10}\textrm{BR}(H\rightarrow ZZ^*\rightarrow 4\ell)$.
We report a measurement of the energy-dependent total charged-current cross section $\sigma\left(E_\nu\right)$ for inclusive muon neutrinos scattering on argon, as well as measurements of flux-averaged differential cross sections as a function of muon energy and hadronic energy transfer ($\nu$). Data corresponding to 5.3$\times$10$^{19}$ protons on target of exposure were collected using the MicroBooNE liquid argon time projection chamber located in the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam with a mean neutrino energy of approximately 0.8~GeV. The mapping between the true neutrino energy $E_\nu$ and reconstructed neutrino energy $E^{rec}_\nu$ and between the energy transfer $\nu$ and reconstructed hadronic energy $E^{rec}_{had}$ are validated by comparing the data and Monte Carlo (MC) predictions. In particular, the modeling of the missing hadronic energy and its associated uncertainties are verified by a new method that compares the $E^{rec}_{had}$ distributions between data and an MC prediction after constraining the reconstructed muon kinematic distributions, energy and polar angle, to those of data. The success of this validation gives confidence that the missing energy in the MicroBooNE detector is well-modeled and underpins first-time measurements of both the total cross section $\sigma\left(E_\nu\right)$ and the differential cross section $d\sigma/d\nu$ on argon.
$\nu_\mu$CC inclusive total cross section per nucleon in each neutrino energy bin with statistical plus systematic uncertainty. The total uncertainty comes from the square root of the covariance matrix diagonal entries.
$\nu_\mu$CC inclusive differential cross section per nucleon in each muon energy bin with statistical plus systematic uncertainty. The total uncertainty comes from the square root of the covariance matrix diagonal entries.
$\nu_\mu$CC inclusive differential cross section per nucleon in each hadronic energy transfer bin with statistical plus systematic uncertainty. The total uncertainty comes from the square root of the covariance matrix diagonal entries.
We present a measurement of the $\nu_e$-interaction rate in the MicroBooNE detector that addresses the observed MiniBooNE anomalous low-energy excess (LEE). The approach taken isolates neutrino interactions consistent with the kinematics of charged-current quasi-elastic (CCQE) events. The topology of such signal events has a final state with 1 electron, 1 proton, and 0 mesons ($1e1p$). Multiple novel techniques are employed to identify a $1e1p$ final state, including particle identification that use two methods of deep-learning-based image identification, and event isolation using a boosted decision-tree ensemble trained to recognize two-body scattering kinematics. This analysis selects 25 $\nu_e$-candidate events in the reconstructed neutrino energy range of 200--1200 MeV, while $29.0 \pm 1.9_\text{(sys)} \pm 5.4_\text{(stat)}$ are predicted when using $\nu_\mu$ CCQE interactions as a constraint. We use a simplified model to translate the MiniBooNE LEE observation into a prediction for a $\nu_e$ signal in MicroBooNE. A $\Delta \chi^2$ test statistic, based on the combined Neyman--Pearson $\chi^2$ formalism, is used to define frequentist confidence intervals for the LEE signal strength. Using this technique, in the case of no LEE signal, we expect this analysis to exclude a normalization factor of 0.75 (0.98) times the median MiniBooNE LEE signal strength at 90% ($2\sigma$) confidence level, while the MicroBooNE data yield an exclusion of 0.25 (0.38) times the median MiniBooNE LEE signal strength at 90% ($2\sigma$) confidence
Observed NuE data and background (+ LEE) prediction, including the muon neutrino background prediction from the empirical fit, for arXiv:2110.14080. The prediction incorporates the constraint from the 1mu1p sample
Observed NuE data and background (+ LEE) prediction, including the muon neutrino background prediction from the empirical fit, for arXiv:2110.14080. The prediction does not incorporate the constraint from the 1mu1p sample
NuE background fractional covariance matrix after the 1mu1p constraint from arXiv:2110.14080
We report a search for an anomalous excess of inclusive charged-current (CC) $\nu_e$ interactions using the Wire-Cell event reconstruction package in the MicroBooNE experiment, which is motivated by the previous observation of a low-energy excess (LEE) of electromagnetic events from the MiniBooNE experiment. With a single liquid argon time projection chamber detector, the measurements of $\nu_{\mu}$ CC interactions as well as $\pi^0$ interactions are used to constrain signal and background predictions of $\nu_e$ CC interactions. A data set collected from February 2016 to July 2018 corresponding to an exposure of 6.369 $\times$ 10$^{20}$ protons on target from the Booster Neutrino Beam at FNAL is analyzed. With $x$ representing an overall normalization factor and referred to as the LEE strength parameter, we select 56 fully contained $\nu_e$ CC candidates while expecting 69.6 $\pm$ 8.0 (stat.) $\pm$ 5.0 (sys.) and 103.8 $\pm$ 9.0 (stat.) $\pm$ 7.4 (sys.) candidates after constraints for the absence (eLEE$_{x=0}$) of the median signal strength derived from the MiniBooNE observation and the presence (eLEE$_{x=1}$) of that signal strength, respectively. Under a nested hypothesis test using both rate and shape information in all available channels, the best-fit $x$ is determined to be 0 (eLEE$_{x=0}$) with a 95.5% confidence level upper limit of $x$ at 0.502. Under a simple-vs-simple hypotheses test, the eLEE$_{x=1}$ hypothesis is rejected at 3.75$\sigma$, while the eLEE$_{x=0}$ hypothesis is shown to be consistent with the observation at 0.45$\sigma$. In the context of the eLEE model, the estimated 68.3% confidence interval of the $\nu_e$ hypothesis to explain the LEE observed in the MiniBooNE experiment is disfavored at a significance level of more than 2.6$\sigma$ (3.0$\sigma$) considering MiniBooNE's full (statistical) uncertainties.
Fully contained $\nu_e$CC data, signal, background, and LEE(x=1) predictions constrained by the $\nu_e$CC PC, $\nu_\mu$CC FC, $\nu_\mu$CC PC, $\nu_\mu$CC $\pi^0$ FC, $\nu_\mu$CC $\pi^0$ PC, and NC $\pi^0$ channels under a LEE(x=0) hypothesis. Note that here we show the sum of the constrained signal and constrained background; due to correlations between signal and background, this is not identical to constraining after summing signal and background, but the difference here is minimal. Note that the rightmost bin is an overflow bin, containing all events with reconstructed neutrino energy greater than 2.5 GeV. The background includes neutral current events, $\nu_\mu$CC events, events with a true neutrino interaction vertex outside the fiducial volume (3 cm inside the TPC active volume), and cosmic ray backgrounds. The signal includes the remaining intrinsic $\nu_e$CC events. The LEE(x=1) includes the predicted excess from an unfolding of the MiniBooNE LEE under a $\nu_e$CC hypothesis.
$\nu_e$ CC FC covariance matrix showing uncertainties and correlations between bins due to flux uncertainties, cross-section uncertainties, hadron reinteraction uncertainties, detector systematic uncertainties, Monte-Carlo statistical uncertainties, and dirt (outside cryostat) uncertainties. For the data statistical uncertainty covariance matrix, (only diagonal elements, not included here), the Neyman, Pearson, or combined Neyman and Pearson (CNP) techniques can be used. This corresponds to LEE(x=0), the standard prediction with no low energy excess. This has been constrained by the $\nu_e$CC PC, $\nu_\mu$CC FC, $\nu_\mu$CC PC, $\nu_\mu$CC $\pi^0$ FC, $\nu_\mu$CC $\pi^0$ PC, and NC $\pi^0$ channels under a LEE(x=0) hypothesis. The 1-26th bins/rows/columns correspond to the 26 bins of reconstructed neutrino energy in the $\nu_e$CC FC channel.
Fully contained $\nu_e$CC signal efficiency as a function of true neutrino energy. Each bin shows the fraction of Monte-Carlo $\nu_e$ CC events with true neutrino interaction vertex in the fiducial volume (3 cm inside the TPC active volume) which are selected in this channel.
A search for long-lived particles (LLPs) produced in association with a Z boson is presented. The study is performed using data from proton-proton collisions with a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV recorded by the CMS experiment during 2016-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 117 fb$^{-1}$. The LLPs are assumed to decay to a pair of standard model quarks that are identified as displaced jets within the CMS tracker system. Triggers and selections based on Z boson decays to electron or muon pairs improve the sensitivity to light LLPs (down to 15 GeV). This search provides sensitivity to beyond the standard model scenarios which predict LLPs produced in association with a Z boson. In particular, the results are interpreted in the context of exotic decays of the Higgs boson to a pair of scalar LLPs (H $\to$ SS). The Higgs boson decay branching fraction is constrained to values less than 6% for proper decay lengths of 10-100 mm and for LLP masses between 40 and 55 GeV. In the case of low-mass ($\approx$ 15 GeV) scalar particles that subsequently decay to a pair of b quarks, the search is sensitive to branching fractions $\mathcal{B}$(H $\to$ SS) $\lt$ 20% for proper decay lengths of 10-50 mm. The use of associated production with a Z boson increases the sensitivity to low-mass LLPs of this analysis with respect to gluon fusion searches. In the case of 15 GeV scalar LLPs, the improvement corresponds to a factor of 2 at a proper decay length of 30 mm.
Distributions of the median-log10 impact parameter significance tagging variable for data and for four signal samples, where the decay lengths of the signal range from 1 to 1000 mm.
Distributions of the median-log10 track angle tagging variable for data and for four signal samples, where the decay lengths of the signal range from 1 to 1000 mm.
Distributions of the alpha max tagging variable for data and for four signal samples, where the decay lengths of the signal range from 1 to 1000 mm.
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