Measurements of the associated production of a W boson and a charm (c) quark in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV are reported. The analysis uses a data sample corresponding to a total integrated luminosity of 19.7 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the CMS detector at the LHC. The W bosons are identified through their leptonic decays to an electron or a muon, and a neutrino. Charm quark jets are selected using distinctive signatures of charm hadron decays. The product of the cross section and branching fraction $\sigma$(pp $\to$ W + c + X) $\mathcal{B}$(W $\to$$\ell\nu$), where $\ell$ = e or $\mu$, and the cross section ratio $\sigma$(pp $\to$ W$^+$ + c + X) / $\sigma$(pp $\to$ W$^-$ + $\mathrm{\bar{c}}$ + X) are measured inclusively and differentially as functions of the pseudorapidity and of the transverse momentum of the lepton from the W boson decay. The results are compared with theoretical predictions. The impact of these measurements on the determination of the strange quark distribution is assessed.
A search is reported for heavy resonances and quantum black holes decaying into e$\mu$, e$\tau$, and $\mu\tau$ final states in proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC during 2016-2018 at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The e$\mu$, e$\tau$, and $\mu\tau$ invariant mass spectra are reconstructed, and no evidence is found for physics beyond the standard model. Upper limits are set at 95% confidence level on the product of the cross section and branching fraction for lepton flavor violating signals. Three benchmark signals are studied: resonant $\tau$ sneutrino production in $R$ parity violating supersymmetric models, heavy Z' gauge bosons with lepton flavor violating decays, and nonresonant quantum black hole production in models with extra spatial dimensions. Resonant $\tau$ sneutrinos are excluded for masses up to 4.2 TeV in the e$\mu$ channel, 3.7 TeV in the e$\tau$ channel, and 3.6 TeV in the $\mu\tau$ channel. A Z' boson with lepton flavor violating couplings is excluded up to a mass of 5.0 TeV in the e$\mu$ channel, up to 4.3 TeV in the e$\tau$ channel, and up to 4.1 TeV in the $\mu\tau$ channel. Quantum black holes in the benchmark model are excluded up to the threshold mass of 5.6 TeV in the e$\mu$ channel, 5.2 TeV in the e$\tau$ channel, and 5.0 TeV in the $\mu\tau$ channel. In addition, model-independent limits are extracted to allow comparisons with other models for the same final states and similar event selection requirements. The results of these searches provide the most stringent limits available from collider experiments for heavy particles that undergo lepton flavor violating decays.
Studies of $CP$ violation and anomalous couplings of the Higgs boson to vector bosons and fermions are presented. The data were acquired by the CMS experiment at the LHC and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$ at a proton-proton collision energy of 13 TeV. The kinematic effects in the Higgs boson's four-lepton decay H $\to$ 4$\ell$ and its production in association with two jets, a vector boson, or top quarks are analyzed, using a full detector simulation and matrix element techniques to identify the production mechanisms and to increase sensitivity to the Higgs boson tensor structure of the Higgs boson interactions. A simultaneous measurement is performed of up to five Higgs boson couplings to electroweak vector bosons (HVV), two couplings to gluons (Hgg), and two couplings to top quarks (Htt). The $CP$ measurement in the Htt interaction is combined with the recent measurement in the H $\to$$\gamma\gamma$ channel. The results are presented in the framework of anomalous couplings and are also interpreted in the framework of effective field theory, including the first study of $CP$ properties of the Htt and effective Hgg couplings from a simultaneous analysis of the gluon fusion and top-associated processes. The results are consistent with the standard model of particle physics.
Fiducial integrated and differential cross sections for the production of the Higgs boson decaying to two photons are measured using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of proton--proton collision data recorded at $\sqrt{s}=13$ TeV by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The inclusive production cross section in a fiducial region closely matching the experimental selection of the photons is measured to be 65.2 $\pm$ 7.1 fb, which is in good agreement with the Standard Model prediction of 63.6 $\pm$ 3.3 fb. Differential measurements are performed for a set of variables that are related to the diphoton kinematics as well as the kinematics and multiplicity of the jets produced in association with the Higgs boson. The measurements are compared to various QCD calculations and are found to be in good agreement with the Standard Model predictions. The measurements are also used to probe the strength and tensor structure of the interactions of the Higgs boson using an effective Lagrangian which introduces additional CP-even and CP-odd interactions. In addition, an interpretation of the transverse momentum distribution of the Higgs boson is performed as an indirect probe of the Yukawa coupling of the Higgs boson to the charm quark. Resulting limits on the strength of anomalous interactions are presented for these two approaches.
A combination of measurements of the inclusive top-quark pair production cross-section performed by ATLAS and CMS in proton-proton collisions at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV at the LHC is presented. The cross-sections are obtained using top-quark pair decays with an opposite-charge electron-muon pair in the final state and with data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of about 5 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and about 20 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV for each experiment. The combined cross-sections are determined to be $178.5 \pm 4.7$ pb at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV and $243.3^{+6.0}_{-5.9}$ pb at $\sqrt{s}=8$ TeV with a correlation of 0.41, using a reference top-quark mass value of 172.5 GeV. The ratio of the combined cross-sections is determined to be $R_{8/7}= 1.363\pm 0.032$. The combined measured cross-sections and their ratio agree well with theory calculations using several parton distribution function (PDF) sets. The values of the top-quark pole mass (with the strong coupling fixed at 0.118) and the strong coupling (with the top-quark pole mass fixed at 172.5 GeV) are extracted from the combined results by fitting a next-to-next-to-leading-order plus next-to-next-to-leading-log QCD prediction to the measurements. Using a version of the NNPDF3.1 PDF set containing no top-quark measurements, the results obtained are $m_t^\text{pole} = 173.4^{+1.8}_{-2.0}$ GeV and $\alpha_\text{s}(m_Z)= 0.1170^{+ 0.0021}_{-0.0018}$.
The cross section for W or Z boson production in association with two photons is measured in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data set corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the CMS experiment at the LHC. The W $\to$$\ell\nu$ and Z $\to$$\ell\ell$ decay modes (where $\ell =$ e, $\mu$) are used to extract the W$\gamma\gamma$ and Z$\gamma\gamma$ cross sections in a phase space defined by electron (muon) with transverse momentum larger than 30 GeV and photon transverse momentum larger than 20 GeV. All leptons and photons are required to have absolute pseudorapidity smaller than 2.5. The measured cross sections in this phase space are $\sigma$(W$\gamma\gamma$) = 13.6 $^{+1.9}_{-1.9}$ (stat) ${}^{+4.0}_{-4.0}$ (syst) $\pm$ 0.08 (PDF + scale) fb and $\sigma$(Z$\gamma\gamma$) = 5.41 $^{+0.58}_{-0.55}$ (stat) ${}^{+0.64}_{-0.70}$ (syst) $\pm$ 0.06 (PDF + scale) fb. Limits on anomalous quartic gauge couplings are set in the framework of an effective field theory with dimension-8 operators.
A generic search is presented for the associated production of a Z boson or a photon with an additional unspecified massive particle X, pp $\to$ pp + Z/$\gamma$ + X, in proton-tagged events from proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, recorded in 2017 with the CMS detector and the CMS-TOTEM precision proton spectrometer. The missing mass spectrum is analysed in the 600-1600 GeV range and a fit is performed to search for possible deviations from the background expectation. No significant excess in data with respect to the background predictions has been observed. Model-independent upper limits on the visible production cross section of pp $\to$ pp + Z/$\gamma$ + X are set.
A search for events with a dark photon produced in association with a dark Higgs boson via rare decays of the Standard Model $Z$ boson is presented, using 139 fb$^{-1}$ of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV proton-proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The dark Higgs boson decays into a pair of dark photons, and at least two of the three dark photons must each decay into a pair of electrons or muons, resulting in at least two same-flavor opposite-charge lepton pairs in the final state. The data are found to be consistent with the background prediction, and upper limits are set on the dark photon's coupling to the dark Higgs boson times the kinetic mixing between the Standard Model photon and the dark photon, $\alpha_{D}\varepsilon^2$, in the dark photon mass range of $[5, 40]$ GeV except for the $\Upsilon$ mass window $[8.8, 11.1]$ GeV. This search explores new parameter space not previously excluded by other experiments.
A search for direct production of low-mass dimuon resonances is performed using $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment during the 2017-2018 operation of the CERN LHC with an integrated luminosity of 96.6 fb$^{-1}$. The search exploits a dedicated high-rate trigger stream that records events with two muons with transverse momenta as low as 3 GeV but does not include the full event information. The search is performed by looking for narrow peaks in the dimuon mass spectrum in the ranges of 1.1-2.6 GeV and 4.2-7.9 GeV. No significant excess of events above the expectation from the standard model background is observed. Model-independent limits on production rates of dimuon resonances within the experimental fiducial acceptance are set. Competitive or world's best limits are set at 90% confidence level for a minimal dark photon model and for a scenario with two Higgs doublets and an extra complex scalar singlet (2HDM+S). Values of the squared kinetic mixing coefficient $\varepsilon^2$ in the dark photon model above 10$^{-6}$ are excluded over most of the mass range of the search. In the 2HDM+S, values of the mixing angle $\sin(\theta_\text{H})$ above 0.08 are excluded over most of the mass range of the search with a fixed ratio of the Higgs doublets vacuum expectation $\tan\beta$ = 0.5.
The inclusive jet cross section is measured as a function of jet transverse momentum $p_\mathrm{T}$ and rapidity $y$. The measurement is performed using proton-proton collision data at $\sqrt{s}$ = 5.02 TeV, recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 27.4 pb$^{-1}$. The jets are reconstructed with the anti-$k_\mathrm{T}$ algorithm using a distance parameter of $R$ = 0.4, within the rapidity interval $\lvert y\rvert$$\lt$ 2, and across the kinematic range 0.06 $\lt$$p_\mathrm{T}$$\lt$ 1 TeV. The jet cross section is unfolded from detector to particle level using the determined jet response and resolution. The results are compared to predictions of perturbative quantum chromodynamics, calculated at both next-to-leading order and next-to-next-to-leading order. The predictions are corrected for nonperturbative effects, and presented for a variety of parton distribution functions and choices of the renormalization / factorization scales and the strong coupling $\alpha_\mathrm{S}$.
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