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.

Results are presented from a search for the Higgs boson decay H $\to$ Z$\gamma$, where Z $\to$$\ell^+\ell^-$ with $\ell$ = e or $\mu$. The search is performed using a sample of proton-proton (pp) collision data at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, recorded by the CMS experiment at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events are assigned to mutually exclusive categories, which exploit differences in both event topology and kinematics of distinct Higgs production mechanisms to enhance signal sensitivity. The signal strength $\mu$, defined as the product of the cross section and the branching fraction [$\sigma($pp $\to$ H$)\mathcal{B}($H $\to$ Z$\gamma)$] relative to the standard model prediction, is extracted from a simultaneous fit to the $\ell^+\ell^-\gamma$ invariant mass distributions in all categories and is found to be $\mu$ = 2.4 $\pm$ 0.9 for a Higgs boson mass of 125.38 GeV. The statistical significance of the observed excess of events is 2.7 standard deviations. This measurement corresponds to $\sigma($pp $\to$ H$)\mathcal{B}($H $\to$ Z$\gamma)$ = 0.21 $\pm$ 0.08 pb. The observed (expected) upper limit at 95% confidence level on $\mu$ is 4.1 (1.8). The ratio of branching fractions $\mathcal{B}($H $\to$ Z$\gamma) / \mathcal{B}($H $\to$ $\gamma\gamma)$ is measured to be 1.5 $^{+0.7}_{-0.6}$, which agrees with the standard model prediction of 0.69 $\pm$ 0.04 at the 1.5 standard deviation level.

The production cross section of a top quark pair in association with a photon is measured in proton-proton collisions in the decay channel with two oppositely charged leptons (e$^\pm\mu^\mp$, e$^+$e$^-$, or $\mu^+\mu^-$). The measurement is performed using 138 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV during the 2016-2018 data-taking period of the CERN LHC. A fiducial phase space is defined such that photons radiated by initial-state particles, top quarks, or any of their decay products are included. An inclusive cross section of 175.2 $\pm$ 2.5 (stat) $\pm$ 6.3 (syst) fb is measured in a signal region with at least one jet coming from the hadronization of a bottom quark and exactly one photon with transverse momentum above 20 GeV. Differential cross sections are measured as functions of several kinematic observables of the photon, leptons, and jets, and compared to standard model predictions. The measurements are also interpreted in the standard model effective field theory framework, and limits are found on the relevant Wilson coefficients from these results alone and in combination with a previous CMS measurement of the $\mathrm{t\bar{t}}\gamma$ production process using the lepton+jets final state.

A search for Kaluza-Klein excited vector boson resonances, $W_\mathrm{KK}$, decaying in cascade to three W bosons via a scalar radion $R, W_\mathrm{KK}\to WR \to WWW$, with two or three massive jets is presented. The search is performed with proton-proton collision data recorded at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, during 2016-2018, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Two final states are simultaneously probed, one where the two W bosons produced by the R decay are reconstructed as separate, large-radius, massive jets, and one where they are merged in a single large-radius jet. The observed data are in agreement with the standard model expectations. Limits are set on the product of the $W_\mathrm{KK}$ resonance cross section and branching fraction to three W bosons in an extended warped extra-dimensional model and are the first of their kind at the LHC.

The first collider search for dark matter arising from a strongly coupled hidden sector is presented and uses a data sample corresponding to 138 fb$^{-1}$, collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC, at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV. The hidden sector is hypothesized to couple to the standard model (SM) via a heavy leptophobic Z' mediator produced as a resonance in proton-proton collisions. The mediator decay results in two "semivisible" jets, containing both visible matter and invisible dark matter. The final state therefore includes moderate missing energy aligned with one of the jets, a signature ignored by most dark matter searches. No structure in the dijet transverse mass spectra compatible with the signal is observed. Assuming the Z' has a universal coupling of 0.25 to the SM quarks, an inclusive search, relevant to any model that exhibits this kinematic behavior, excludes mediator masses of 1.5-4.0 TeV at 95% confidence level, depending on the other signal model parameters. To enhance the sensitivity of the search for this particular class of hidden sector models, a boosted decision tree (BDT) is trained using jet substructure variables to distinguish between semivisible jets and SM jets from background processes. When the BDT is employed to identify each jet in the dijet system as semivisible, the mediator mass exclusion increases to 5.1 TeV, for wider ranges of the other signal model parameters. These limits exclude a wide range of strongly coupled hidden sector models for the first time.

An inclusive search for long-lived exotic particles decaying to a pair of muons is presented. The search uses data collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV in 2016 and 2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 97.6 fb$^{-1}$. The experimental signature is a pair of oppositely charged muons originating from a common secondary vertex spatially separated from the pp interaction point by distances ranging from several hundred $\mu$m to several meters. The results are interpreted in the frameworks of the hidden Abelian Higgs model, in which the Higgs boson decays to a pair of long-lived dark photons Z$_\mathrm{D}$, and of a simplified model, in which long-lived particles are produced in decays of an exotic heavy neutral scalar boson. For the hidden Abelian Higgs model with $m_\mathrm{Z_D}$ greater than 20 GeV and less than half the mass of the Higgs boson, they provide the best limits to date on the branching fraction of the Higgs boson to dark photons for $c\tau$(Z$_\mathrm{D}$) (varying with $m_\mathrm{Z_D}$) between 0.03 and ${\approx}$ 0.5 mm, and above ${\approx}$ 0.5 m. Our results also yield the best constraints on long-lived particles with masses larger than 10 GeV produced in decays of an exotic scalar boson heavier than the Higgs boson and decaying to a pair of muons.

A search is presented for vector-like T and B quark-antiquark pairs produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. Data were collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2016-2018, with an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events are separated into single-lepton, same-sign charge dilepton, and multilepton channels. In the analysis of the single-lepton channel a multilayer neural network and jet identification techniques are employed to select signal events, while the same-sign dilepton and multilepton channels rely on the high-energy signature of the signal to distinguish it from standard model backgrounds. The data are consistent with standard model background predictions, and the production of vector-like quark pairs is excluded at 95% confidence level for T quark masses up to 1.54 TeV and B quark masses up to 1.56 TeV, depending on the branching fractions assumed, with maximal sensitivity to decay modes that include multiple top quarks. The limits obtained in this search are the strongest limits to date for $\mathrm{T\overline{T}}$ production, excluding masses below 1.48 TeV for all decays to third generation quarks, and are the strongest limits to date for $\mathrm{B\overline{B}}$ production with B quark decays to tW.

A search has been performed for heavy resonances decaying to ZZ or ZW and for axion-like particles (ALPs) mediating nonresonant ZZ or ZH production, in final states with two charged leptons ($\ell$ = e, $\mu$) produced by the decay of a Z boson, and two quarks produced by the decay of a Z, W, or Higgs boson H. The analysis is sensitive to resonances with masses in the range 450 to 2000 GeV. Two categories are defined corresponding to the merged or resolved reconstruction of the hadronically decaying boson. The search is based on data collected during 2016-2018 by the CMS experiment at the LHC in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. No significant excess is observed in the data above the standard model background expectation. Upper limits on the production cross section of heavy, narrow spin-2 and spin-1 resonances are derived as functions of the resonance mass, and exclusion limits on the production of bulk graviton particles and W$'$ bosons are calculated in the framework of the warped extra dimensions and heavy vector triplet models, respectively. In addition, upper limits on the ALP-mediated diboson production cross section and ALP couplings to standard model particles are obtained in the framework of linear and chiral effective field theories. These are the first limits on nonresonant ALP-mediated ZZ and ZH production obtained by the LHC experiments.

A search for heavy neutral leptons (HNLs), the right-handed Dirac or Majorana neutrinos, is performed in final states with three charged leptons (electrons or muons) using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV at the CERN LHC. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The HNLs could be produced through mixing with standard model neutrinos $\nu$. For small values of the HNL mass ($\lt$ 20 GeV) and the square of the HNL-$\nu$ mixing parameter (10$^{-7}$-10$^{-2}$), the decay length of these particles can be large enough so that the secondary vertex of the HNL decay can be resolved with the CMS silicon tracker. The selected final state consists of one lepton emerging from the primary proton-proton collision vertex, and two leptons forming a displaced, secondary vertex. No significant deviations from the standard model expectations are observed, and constraints are obtained on the HNL mass and coupling strength parameters, excluding previously unexplored regions of parameter space in the mass range 1-20 GeV and squared mixing parameter values as low as 10$^{-7}$.

Results are presented from a search for physics beyond the standard model in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV in channels with two Higgs bosons, each decaying via the process H $\to$$\mathrm{b\bar{b}}$, and large missing transverse momentum. The search uses a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$ collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. The search is motivated by models of supersymmetry that predict the production of neutralinos, the neutral partners of the electroweak gauge and Higgs bosons. The observed event yields in the signal regions are found to be consistent with the standard model background expectations. The results are interpreted using simplified models of supersymmetry. For the electroweak production of nearly mass-degenerate higgsinos, each of whose decay chains yields a neutralino ($\tilde{\chi}^0_1$) that in turn decays to a massless goldstino and a Higgs boson, $\tilde{\chi}^0_1$ masses in the range 175 to 1025 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level. For the strong production of gluino pairs decaying via a slightly lighter $\tilde{\chi}^0_2$ to H and a light $\tilde{\chi}^0_1$, gluino masses below 2330 GeV are excluded.