A search is presented for a Higgs boson that is produced in association with a Z boson and that decays to an undetected particle together with an isolated photon. The search is performed by the CMS Collaboration at the Large Hadron Collider using a data set corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$ recorded at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No significant excess of events above the expectation from the standard model background is found. The results are interpreted in the context of a theoretical model in which the undetected particle is a massless dark photon. An upper limit is set on the product of the cross section for associated Higgs and Z boson production and the branching fraction for such a Higgs boson decay, as a function of the Higgs boson mass. For a mass of 125 GeV, assuming the standard model production cross section, this corresponds to an observed (expected) upper limit on this branching fraction of 4.6 (3.6)% at 95% confidence level. These are the first limits on Higgs boson decays to final states that include an undetected massless dark photon.
Observed yields, background estimates after the fit to data, and signal predictions after the event selection in the signal region. The signal size corresponds to $0.1 \sigma_{\mathrm{\mathrm{ZH}}}$ for all three $m_{\mathrm{\mathrm{H}}}$ values shown. The combined statistical and systematic uncertainties are reported.
Expected yields for different processes after several selection stages. The preselection requires two leptons and at least one photon with $\mathrm{p_\mathrm{T}}$ larger than 25, 20, and 25 GeV, respectively; in addition the dilepton $\mathrm{p_\mathrm{T}}$ must be larger than 60 GeV, and the $\mathrm{p_\mathrm{T}}^{\mathrm{miss}}$ larger than 70 GeV. The signal prediction corresponds to $0.1 \sigma_{\mathrm{\mathrm{ZH}}}$ at $m_{H}$ = 125 GeV.
Expected and observed upper limits at 95\% confidence level on the product of $\sigma_{\mathrm{\mathrm{ZH}}}$ and $\mathcal{B}$($\mathrm{H}$ -> $\mathrm{invisible}+\gamma$) as a function of $m_{\mathrm{\mathrm{H}}}$.
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