A search for physics beyond the standard model in events with at least three leptons is presented. The data sample, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 19.5 inverse femtobarns of proton-proton collisions with center-of-mass energy sqrt(s) = 8 TeV, was collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC during 2012. The data are divided into exclusive categories based on the number of leptons and their flavor, the presence or absence of an opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pair (OSSF), the invariant mass of the OSSF pair, the presence or absence of a tagged bottom-quark jet, the number of identified hadronically decaying tau leptons, and the magnitude of the missing transverse energy and of the scalar sum of jet transverse momenta. The numbers of observed events are found to be consistent with the expected numbers from standard model processes, and limits are placed on new-physics scenarios that yield multilepton final states. In particular, scenarios that predict Higgs boson production in the context of supersymmetric decay chains are examined. We also place a 95% confidence level upper limit of 1.3% on the branching fraction for the decay of a top quark to a charm quark and a Higgs boson (t to c H), which translates to a bound on the left- and right-handed top-charm flavor-violating Higgs Yukawa couplings, lambda[H, tc] and lambda[H, ct], respectively, of sqrt(abs(lambda[H, tc])^2 + abs(lambda[H, ct])^2) < 0.21.
Observed - 1sig(theoretical) 95% C.L. exclusion contour for the T1tttt scenario.
Two related searches for phenomena beyond the standard model (BSM) are performed using events with hadronic jets and significant transverse momentum imbalance. The results are based on a sample of proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC in 2016-2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. The first search is inclusive, based on signal regions defined by the hadronic energy in the event, the jet multiplicity, the number of jets identified as originating from bottom quarks, and the value of the kinematic variable $M_\mathrm{T2}$ for events with at least two jets. For events with exactly one jet, the transverse momentum of the jet is used instead. The second search looks in addition for disappearing tracks produced by BSM long-lived charged particles that decay within the volume of the tracking detector. No excess event yield is observed above the predicted standard model background. This is used to constrain a range of BSM models that predict the following: the pair production of gluinos and squarks in the context of supersymmetry models conserving $R$-parity, with or without intermediate long-lived charginos produced in the decay chain; the resonant production of a colored scalar state decaying to a massive Dirac fermion and a quark; or the pair production of scalar and vector leptoquarks each decaying to a neutrino and a top, bottom, or light-flavor quark. In most of the cases, the results obtained are the most stringent constraints to date.
Predictions and observations for signal regions with $H_\mathrm{T} \geq 1500$ GeV and $N_\mathrm{j}<7$
Exclusion limits at 95% CL for direct gluino pair production, where the gluinos decay to light-flavor quarks and either the lightest neutralino, or the lightest chargino, and the chargino mass is O(100) MeV greater than the neutralino's mass. The chargino's lifetime is varied from $c\tau_{0} = 5$ to 1000 cm while the gluino mass is fixed to 1600 GeV and the neutralino's mass is fixed to 1575 GeV. Signal cross sections are calculated at approximately NNLO+NNLL order in $\alpha_S$.
Exclusion limits at 95% CL for direct squark pair production, where the squarks decay to light-flavor quarks and either the lightest neutralino, or the lightest chargino, and the chargino mass is O(100) MeV greater than the neutralino's mass. The chargino's lifetime is varied from $c\tau_{0} = 5$ to 1000 cm while the squark mass is fixed to 2000 GeV and the neutralino's mass is fixed to 1000 GeV. Signal cross sections are calculated at approximately NNLO+NNLL order in $\alpha_S$, and the eight light squarks' masses are assumed to be degenerate.
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