Search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production in the $bb\ell\nu\ell\nu$ final state with the ATLAS detector in $pp$ collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV

The ATLAS collaboration Aad, Georges ; Abbott, Brad ; Abbott, Dale Charles ; et al.
Phys.Lett.B 801 (2020) 135145, 2020.
Inspire Record 1750030 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.91054

A search for non-resonant Higgs boson pair production, as predicted by the Standard Model, is presented, where one of the Higgs bosons decays via the $H\rightarrow bb$ channel and the other via one of the $H \rightarrow WW^*/ZZ^*/\tau\tau$ channels. The analysis selection requires events to have at least two $b$-tagged jets and exactly two leptons (electrons or muons) with opposite electric charge in the final state. Candidate events consistent with Higgs boson pair production are selected using a multi-class neural network discriminant. The analysis uses 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $pp$ collision data recorded at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. An observed (expected) upper limit of 1.2 ($0.9^{+0.4}_{-0.3}$) pb is set on the non-resonant Higgs boson pair production cross-section at 95% confidence level, which is equivalent to 40 ($29^{+14}_{-9}$) times the value predicted in the Standard Model.

2 data tables match query

Reconstruction-level analysis selection efficiency for the $HH \rightarrow bbWW^* \rightarrow bbl\nu l\nu$ signal process as a function of the truth-level $HH$ invariant mass, $m_{HH}$. Each color indicates an additional selection applied sequentially and in the order indicated in the legend with respect to the starting sample of events satisfying the analysis preselection requirements and having at least two $b$-tagged jets. In the legend, ``Trigger'' refers to enforcing the analysis' trigger requirements. For reference, overlaid in grey colour and with arbitrary normalisation is the truth level $m_{HH}$ distribution for events having only the preselection criteria applied. The total efficiency for the tightest selection that is shown (red line), which has selection requirements similar to those of the analysis' signal regions SR-SF and SR-DF, is $7.1\%$.

Expected and observed $95\%$ CL limits on the cross-section of ggF non-resonant Higgs boson pair production as a function of the Higgs boson self-coupling modifier, $\kappa_{\lambda} = \lambda_{HHH} / \lambda_{HHH}^{\textit{SM}}$. The $\pm 1 \sigma$ and $\pm 2 \sigma$ variations about the expected limit, due to statistical and systematic uncertainties, are also shown. The method used for producing estimates of $HH$ production at non-SM values of $\kappa_{\lambda}$ is fully described in arXiv:1906.02025. The theory prediction curve represents the scenario where all parameters and couplings are set to their SM values except for $\kappa_{\lambda}$, also described in arXiv:1906.02025. The uncertainty band on the theory prediction indicates the theoretical uncertainty of this prediction. No additional analysis optimisation relative to that appearing in the main body of the analysis is performed to become particularly sensitive to non-SM values of $\kappa_{\lambda}$. The vertical dashed line indicates the SM scenario with $\kappa_{\lambda} = 1$.