A study is presented of anomalous HVV interactions of the Higgs boson, including its $CP$ properties. The study uses Higgs boson candidates produced mainly in vector boson fusion and gluon fusion that subsequently decay to a pair of $\tau$ leptons. The data were recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016 at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$. A matrix element technique is employed for the analysis of anomalous interactions. The results are combined with those from the H $\to 4\ell$ decay channel presented earlier, yielding the most stringent constraints on anomalous Higgs boson couplings to electroweak vector bosons expressed as effective cross section fractions and phases: the $CP$-violating parameter $f_{a3}\cos(\phi_{a3})$ $=$ $(0.00 \pm 0.27) \times 10^{-3}$ and the $CP$-conserving parameters $f_{a2}\cos(\phi_{a2})$ $=$ $(0.08 ^{+1.04}_{-0.21}) \times 10^{-3}$, $f_{\Lambda1}\cos(\phi_{\Lambda1})$ $=$ $(0.00 ^{+0.53}_{-0.09}) \times 10^{-3}$, and $f_{\Lambda1}^{\mathrm{Z}\gamma}\cos(\phi_{\Lambda1}^{\mathrm{Z}\gamma})$ $=$ $(0.0 ^{+1.1}_{-1.3}) \times 10^{-3}$. The current dataset does not allow for precise constraints on $CP$ properties in the gluon fusion process. The results are consistent with standard model expectations.
Observed and expected likelihood scans of $f_{a3}\cos\phi_{a3}$. See Section 4 of the paper for more details.
Observed and expected likelihood scans of $f_{a2}\cos\phi_{a2}$. See Section 4 of the paper for more details.
Observed and expected likelihood scans of $f_{\Lambda1}\cos\phi_{\Lambda1}$. See Section 4 of the paper for more details.
A search is performed for anomalous interactions of the recently discovered Higgs boson using matrix element techniques with the information from its decay to four leptons and from associated Higgs boson production with two quark jets in either vector boson fusion or associated production with a vector boson. The data were recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 38.6 inverse femtobarns. These data are combined with the data collected at center-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 5.1 and 19.7 inverse femtobarns, respectively. All observations are consistent with the expectations for the standard model Higgs boson.
Observed and expected likelihood scans $f_{a3}\cos\phi_{a3}$. See Section 2 of the paper for more details.
Observed and expected likelihood scans $f_{a2}\cos\phi_{a2}$. See Section 2 of the paper for more details.
Observed and expected likelihood scans $f_{\Lambda1}\cos\phi_{\Lambda1}$. See Section 2 of the paper for more details.
Four-lepton production in proton-proton collisions, pp to (Z/gamma*)(Z/gamma*) to l+l-l'+l'-, where l, l' = e or mu, is studied at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 2.6 inverse femtobarns. The ZZ production cross section, sigma(pp to ZZ) = 14.6 +1.9/-1.8 (stat) +0.5/-0.3 (syst) +/- 0.2 (theo) +/- 0.4 (lumi) pb, is measured for events with two opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pairs produced in the mass region 60 < m[l+l-], m[l'+l'-] < 120 GeV. The Z boson branching fraction to four leptons is measured to be B(Z to l+l-l'+l'-) = 4.9 +0.8/-0.7 (stat) +0.3/-0.2 (syst) +0.2/-0.1 (theo) +/- 0.1 (lumi) x E-6 for the four-lepton invariant mass in the range 80 < m[l+l-l'+l'-] < 100 GeV and dilepton mass m[l+l-] > 4 GeV for all opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pairs. The results are in agreement with standard model predictions.
The (P P to Z Z to l+l-l'+l'-) fiducial cross section. The first systematic uncertainty is detector systematics, the second is luminosity uncertainty. The theoretical prediction is POWHEG generated at NLO plus the gluon-gluon initial state contribution from MCFM, using NNPDF3.0 PDFs and scales mu_F = mu_R = 0.5m[l+l-l'+l'-].
The (P P to Z to l+l-l'+l'-) fiducial cross section. The first systematic uncertainty is detector systematics, the second is luminosity uncertainty. The theoretical prediction is POWHEG generated at NLO using NNPDF3.0 PDFs and scales mu_F = mu_R = m[l+l-l'+l'-].
The total (P P to Z) cross section times the (Z to l+l-l'+l'-) branching ratio. The first systematic uncertainty is detector systematics, the second is theoretical uncertainty, and the third is luminosity uncertainty.
Forum