The ALICE Collaboration reports a differential measurement of inclusive jet suppression using pp and Pb$-$Pb collision data at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon-nucleon collision $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV. Charged-particle jets are reconstructed using the anti-$k_{\rm T}$ algorithm with resolution parameters $R =$ 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6 in pp collisions and $R =$ 0.2, 0.4, 0.6 in central (0$-$10%), semi-central (30$-$50%), and peripheral (60$-$80%) Pb$-$Pb collisions. A novel approach based on machine learning is employed to mitigate the influence of jet background. This enables measurements of inclusive jet suppression in new regions of phase space, including down to the lowest jet $p_{\rm T} \geq 40$ GeV/$c$ at $R = 0.6$ in central Pb$-$Pb collisions. This is an important step for discriminating different models of jet quenching in the quark-gluon plasma. The transverse momentum spectra, nuclear modification factors, derived cross section, and nuclear modification factor ratios for different jet resolution parameters of charged-particle jets are presented and compared to model predictions. A mild dependence of the nuclear modification factor ratios on collision centrality and resolution parameter is observed. The results are compared to a variety of jet-quenching models with varying levels of agreement.

Differential two-particle normalized cumulants ($R_2$) and transverse momentum correlations ($P_2$) are measured as a function of the relative pseudorapidity and azimuthal angle difference $( Δη, Δφ)$ of charged particle pairs in minimum bias pp collisions at $\sqrt{\textit{s}}$ = 13 TeV. The measurements use charged hadrons in the pseudorapidity region of $|η| < 0.8$ and the transverse momentum range \mbox{0.2 $< \textit{p}_{\mathrm T} < $ 2.0 $\mathrm{GeV}/\textit{c}$} in order to focus on soft multiparticle interactions and to complement prior measurements of these correlation functions in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions. The correlation functions are reported for both unlike-sign and like-sign pairs and their charge-independent and charge-dependent combinations. Both the $R_2$ and $P_2$ measured in pp collisions exhibit features qualitatively similar to those observed in p--Pb and Pb--Pb collisions. The $Δη$ and $Δφ$ root mean square widths of the near-side peak of the correlation functions are evaluated and compared with those observed in p-Pb and Pb-Pb collisions and show smooth evolution with the multiplicity of charged particles produced in the collision. The comparison of the measured correlation functions with predictions from PYTHIA8 shows that this model qualitatively captures their basic structure and characteristics but feature important differences. In addition, the $R_2^{\rm CD}$ is used to determine the charge balance function of hadrons produced within the detector acceptance of the measurements. The integral of the balance function is found to be compatible with those reported by a previous measurement in Pb--Pb collisions.

The coherent J/$\psi$ photoproduction cross section is measured for the first time at midrapidity in peripheral to semicentral Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV. The centrality differential cross section ${\rm d} \sigma/ {\rm d}y$ is reported for the centrality range 40-90%, together with the doubly-differential cross section ${\rm d}^2 \sigma /{\rm d}y {\rm d} p_{\rm T}$, extracted in two peripheral centrality classes. The J/$\psi$ mesons are reconstructed in the dielectron channel, in the rapidity interval $|y| <$ 0.9 using the ALICE central barrel detectors. The J/$\psi$ cross section at midrapidity is statistically compatible to the earlier ALICE measurement at forward rapidity and at the same centre-of-mass energy, and shows only a mild centrality dependence over the covered range. Several sets of theoretical calculations taking into account the hadronic overlap in the collisions but ignoring possible final-state effects from a hot expanding medium are found to give a fairly good description of the current measurements within uncertainties.

A search for the rare $\eta$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-\mu^+\mu^-$ double-Dalitz decay is performed using a sample of proton-proton collisions, collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC with high-rate muon triggers in 2017-2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb$^{-1}$. A signal having a statistical significance well in excess of 5 standard deviations is observed. Using the $\eta$$\to$$\mu^+ \mu^-$ decay as normalization, the branching fraction $\mathcal{B}(\eta$$\to$$\mu^+\mu^-\mu^+\mu^-)$ = [5.0 $\pm$ 0.8 (stat) $\pm$ 0.7 (syst) $\pm$ 0.7 ($\mathcal{B}_{2\mu}$)] $\times$ 10$^{-9}$ is measured, where the last term is the uncertainty in the normalization channel branching fraction. This work achieves an improved precision of over five orders of magnitude compared to previous results, leading to the first measurement of this branching fraction, which is found to agree with theoretical predictions.

The central exclusive production of charged-hadron pairs in pp collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV is examined, based on data collected in a special high-$\beta^*$ run of the LHC. The nonresonant continuum processes are studied with the invariant mass of the centrally produced two-pion system in the resonance-free region, $m_{\pi^+\pi^-}$$\lt$ 0.7 GeV or $m_{\pi^+\pi^-}$$\gt$ 1.8 GeV. Differential cross sections as functions of the azimuthal angle between the surviving protons, squared exchanged four-momenta, and $m_{\pi^+\pi^-}$ are measured in a wide region of scattered proton transverse momenta, between 0.2 and 0.8 GeV, and for pion rapidities $\lvert y\rvert$$\lt$ 2. A rich structure of interactions related to double-pomeron exchange is observed. A parabolic minimum in the distribution of the two-proton azimuthal angle is observed for the first time. It can be interpreted as an effect of additional pomeron exchanges between the protons from the interference between the bare and the rescattered amplitudes. After model tuning, various physical quantities are determined that are related to the pomeron cross section, proton-pomeron and meson-pomeron form factors, pomeron trajectory and intercept, and coefficients of diffractive eigenstates of the proton.

A search for the lepton-flavor violating decay of the Higgs boson and potential additional Higgs bosons with a mass in the range 110-160 GeV to an e$^{\pm}\mu^{\mp}$ pair is presented. The search is performed with a proton-proton collision dataset at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. No excess is observed for the Higgs boson. The observed (expected) upper limit on the e$^{\pm}\mu^{\mp}$ branching fraction for it is determined to be 4.4 (4.7) $\times$ 10$^{-5}$ at 95% confidence level, the most stringent limit set thus far from direct searches. The largest excess of events over the expected background in the full mass range of the search is observed at an e$^{\pm}\mu^{\mp}$ invariant mass of approximately 146 GeV with a local (global) significance of 3.8 (2.8) standard deviations.

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.

A search is presented for an extended Higgs sector with two new particles, X and $\phi$, in the process $X \to\phi\phi\to(\gamma\gamma)(\gamma\gamma)$. Novel neural networks classify events with diphotons that are merged and determine the diphoton masses. The search uses LHC proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV collected with the CMS detector, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. No evidence of such resonances is seen. Upper limits are set on the production cross section for $m_X$ between 300 and 3000 GeV and $m_\phi / m_X$ between 0.5 and 2.5%, representing the most sensitive search in this channel.

The observation of the production of four top quarks in proton-proton collisions is reported, based on a data sample collected by the CMS experiment at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2016-2018 at the CERN LHC and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events with two same-sign, three, or four charged leptons (electrons and muons) and additional jets are analyzed. Compared to previous results in these channels, updated identification techniques for charged leptons and jets originating from the hadronization of b quarks, as well as a revised multivariate analysis strategy to distinguish the signal process from the main backgrounds, lead to an improved expected signal significance of 4.9 standard deviations above the background-only hypothesis. Four top quark production is observed with a significance of 5.6 standard deviations, and its cross section is measured to be 17.7 $^{+3.7}_{-3.5}$ (stat) $^{+2.3}_{-1.9}$ (syst) fb, in agreement with the available standard model predictions.

The first measurement of the inclusive and normalised differential cross sections of single top quark production in association with a W boson in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13.6 TeV is presented. The data were recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC in 2022, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 34.7 fb$^{-1}$. The analysed events contain one muon and one electron in the final state. For the inclusive measurement, multivariate discriminants exploiting the kinematic properties of the events are used to separate the signal from the dominant top quark-antiquark production background. A cross section of 82.3 $\pm$ 2.1 (stat) ${}^{+9.9}_{-9.7}$ (syst) $\pm$ 3.3 (lumi) pb is obtained, consistent with the predictions of the standard model. A fiducial region is defined according to the detector acceptance to perform the differential measurements. The resulting differential distributions are unfolded to particle level and show good agreement with the predictions at next-to-leading order in perturbative quantum chromodynamics.