A search for heavy, long-lived, charged particles with large ionization energy loss within the silicon tracker of the CMS experiment is presented. A data set of proton-proton collisions at a center of mass energy at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, collected in 2017 and 2018 at the CERN LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 101 fb$^{-1}$, is used in this analysis. Two different approaches for the search are taken. A new method exploits the independence of the silicon pixel and strips measurements, while the second method improves on previous techniques using ionization to determine a mass selection. No significant excess of events above the background expectation is observed. The results are interpreted in the context of the pair production of supersymmetric particles, namely gluinos, top squarks, and tau sleptons, and of the Drell-Yan pair production of fourth generation ($\tau'$) leptons with an electric charge equal to or twice the absolute value of the electron charge ($e$). An interpretation of a Z$'$ boson decaying to two $\tau'$ leptons with an electric charge equal to 2$e$ is presented for the first time. The 95% confidence upper limits on the production cross section are extracted for each of these hypothetical particles.
A search for the direct production of a pair of $\tau$ sleptons, the supersymmetric partners of $\tau$ leptons, is presented. Each $\tau$ slepton is assumed to decay to a $\tau$ lepton and the lightest supersymmetric particle (LSP), which is assumed to be stable and to not interact in the detector, leading to an imbalance in the total reconstructed transverse momentum. The search is carried out in events identified as containing two $\tau$ leptons, each decaying to one or more hadrons and a neutrino, and significant transverse momentum imbalance. In addition to scenarios in which the $\tau$ sleptons decay promptly, the search also addresses scenarios in which the $\tau$ sleptons have sufficiently long lifetimes to give rise to nonprompt $\tau$ leptons. The data were collected in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the CERN LHC with the CMS detector in 2016-2018, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. No significant excess is seen with respect to standard model expectations. Upper limits on cross sections for the pair production of $\tau$ sleptons are obtained in the framework of simplified models. In a scenario in which the $\tau$ sleptons are superpartners of left-handed $\tau$ leptons, and each undergoes a prompt decay to a $\tau$ lepton and a nearly massless LSP, $\tau$ slepton masses between 115 and 340 GeV are excluded. In a scenario in which the lifetime of the $\tau$ sleptons corresponds to $c\tau_0$ = 0.1 mm, where $\tau_{0}$ represents the mean proper lifetime of the $\tau$ slepton, masses between 150 and 220 GeV are excluded.
A search for new phenomena has been performed in final states with at least one isolated high-momentum photon, jets and missing transverse momentum in proton--proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV. The data, collected by the ATLAS experiment at the CERN LHC, correspond to an integrated luminosity of 139 $fb^{-1}$. The experimental results are interpreted in a supersymmetric model in which pair-produced gluinos decay into neutralinos, which in turn decay into a gravitino, at least one photon, and jets. No significant deviations from the predictions of the Standard Model are observed. Upper limits are set on the visible cross section due to physics beyond the Standard Model, and lower limits are set on the masses of the gluinos and neutralinos, all at 95% confidence level. Visible cross sections greater than 0.022 fb are excluded and pair-produced gluinos with masses up to 2200 GeV are excluded for most of the NLSP masses investigated.
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.
A search for pair production of bottom squarks in events with hadronically decaying $\tau$-leptons, $b$-tagged jets and large missing transverse momentum is presented. The analyzed dataset is based on proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded by the ATLAS detector from 2015 to 2018, and corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 139 fb$^{-1}$. The observed data are compatible with the expected Standard Model background. Results are interpreted in a simplified model where each bottom squark is assumed to decay into the second-lightest neutralino $\tilde \chi_2^0$ and a bottom quark, with $\tilde \chi_2^0$ decaying into a Higgs boson and the lightest neutralino $\tilde \chi_1^0$. The search focuses on final states where at least one Higgs boson decays into a pair of hadronically decaying $\tau$-leptons. This allows the acceptance and thus the sensitivity to be significantly improved relative to the previous results at low masses of the $\tilde \chi_2^0$, where bottom-squark masses up to 850 GeV are excluded at the 95% confidence level, assuming a mass difference of 130 GeV between $\tilde \chi_2^0$ and $\tilde \chi_1^0$. Model-independent upper limits are also set on the cross section of processes beyond the Standard Model.
A search for production of the supersymmetric partners of the top quark, top squarks, is presented. The search is based on proton-proton collision events containing multiple jets, no leptons, and large transverse momentum imbalance. The data were collected with the CMS detector at the CERN LHC at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$. The targeted signal production scenarios are direct and gluino-mediated top squark production, including scenarios in which the top squark and neutralino masses are nearly degenerate. The search utilizes novel algorithms based on deep neural networks that identify hadronically decaying top quarks and W bosons, which are expected in many of the targeted signal models. No statistically significant excess of events is observed relative to the expectation from the standard model, and limits on the top squark production cross section are obtained in the context of simplified supersymmetric models for various production and decay modes. Exclusion limits as high as 1310 GeV are established at the 95% confidence level on the mass of the top squark for direct top squark production models, and as high as 2260 GeV on the mass of the gluino for gluino-mediated top squark production models. These results represent a significant improvement over the results of previous searches for supersymmetry by CMS in the same final state.
A search for new physics in events with two highly Lorentz-boosted Z bosons and large missing transverse momentum is presented. The analyzed proton-proton collision data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 137 fb$^{-1}$, were recorded at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC. The search utilizes the substructure of jets with large radius to identify quark pairs from Z boson decays. Backgrounds from standard model processes are suppressed by requirements on the jet mass and the missing transverse momentum. No significant excess in the event yield is observed beyond the number of background events expected from the standard model. For a simplified supersymmetric model in which the Z bosons arise from the decay of gluinos, an exclusion limit of 1920 GeV on the gluino mass is set at 95% confidence level. This is the first search for beyond-standard-model production of pairs of boosted Z bosons plus large missing transverse momentum.
A search for heavy charged long-lived particles is performed using a data sample of 36.1 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 13$ TeV collected by the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The search is based on observables related to ionization energy loss and time of flight, which are sensitive to the velocity of heavy charged particles traveling significantly slower than the speed of light. Multiple search strategies for a wide range of lifetimes, corresponding to path lengths of a few meters, are defined as model-independently as possible, by referencing several representative physics cases that yield long-lived particles within supersymmetric models, such as gluinos/squarks ($R$-hadrons), charginos and staus. No significant deviations from the expected Standard Model background are observed. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are provided on the production cross sections of long-lived $R$-hadrons as well as directly pair-produced staus and charginos. These results translate into lower limits on the masses of long-lived gluino, sbottom and stop $R$-hadrons, as well as staus and charginos of 2000 GeV, 1250 GeV, 1340 GeV, 430 GeV and 1090 GeV, respectively.
A search for supersymmetry is presented based on events with at least one photon, jets, and large missing transverse momentum produced in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$ and were recorded at the LHC with the CMS detector in 2016. The analysis characterizes signal-like events by categorizing the data into various signal regions based on the number of jets, the number of b-tagged jets, and the missing transverse momentum. No significant excess of events is observed with respect to the expectations from standard model processes. Limits are placed on the gluino and top squark pair production cross sections using several simplified models of supersymmetric particle production with gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking. Depending on the model and the mass of the next-to-lightest supersymmetric particle, the production of gluinos with masses as large as 2120 GeV and the production of top squarks with masses as large as 1230 GeV are excluded at 95% confidence level.
A search for exotic decays of the Higgs boson to a pair of light pseudoscalar particles a$_1$ is performed under the hypothesis that one of the pseudoscalars decays to a pair of opposite sign muons and the other decays to b$\overline{\mathrm{b}}$. Such signatures are predicted in a number of extensions of the standard model (SM), including next-to-minimal supersymmetry and two-Higgs-doublet models with an additional scalar singlet. The results are based on a data set of proton-proton collisions corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb$^{-1}$, accumulated with the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC in 2016 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. No statistically significant excess is observed with respect to the SM backgrounds in the search region for pseudoscalar masses from 20 GeV to half of the Higgs boson mass. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set on the product of the production cross section and branching fraction, $\sigma_{\mathrm{h}}\mathcal{B}$(h $\to$ a$_1$ a$_1$ $\to$ $\mu^+\mu^-\mathrm{b}\bar{\mathrm{b}}$), ranging from 5 to 33 fb, depending on the pseudoscalar mass. Corresponding limits on the branching fraction, assuming the SM prediction for $\sigma_{\mathrm{h}}$, are (1$-$7)$\times$ 10$^{-4}$.
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