Production cross sections of the standard model Higgs boson decaying to a pair of W bosons are measured in proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV. The analysis targets Higgs bosons produced via gluon fusion, vector boson fusion, and in association with a W or Z boson. Candidate events are required to have at least two charged leptons and moderate missing transverse momentum, targeting events with at least one leptonically decaying W boson originating from the Higgs boson. Results are presented in the form of inclusive and differential cross sections in the simplified template cross section framework, as well as couplings of the Higgs boson to vector bosons and fermions. The data set collected by the CMS detector during 2016-2018 is used, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The signal strength modifier $\mu$, defined as the ratio of the observed production rate in a given decay channel to the standard model expectation, is measured to be $\mu$ = 0.95 $^{+0.10}_{-0.09}$. All results are found to be compatible with the standard model within the uncertainties.

A search for exclusive two-photon production via photon exchange in proton-proton collisions, pp $\to$ p$\gamma\gamma$p with intact protons, is presented. The data correspond to an integrated luminosity of 9.4 fb$^{-1}$ collected in 2016 using the CMS and TOTEM detectors at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV at the LHC. Events are selected with a diphoton invariant mass above 350 GeV and with both protons intact in the final state, to reduce backgrounds from strong interactions. The events of interest are those where the invariant mass and rapidity calculated from the momentum losses of the forward-moving protons matches the mass and rapidity of the central, two-photon system. No events are found that satisfy this condition. Interpreting this result in an effective dimension-8 extension of the standard model, the first limits are set on the two anomalous four-photon coupling parameters. If the other parameter is constrained to its standard model value, the limits at 95% CL are $\lvert\zeta_1\rvert$ $\lt$ 2.9 $\times$ 10$^{-13}$ GeV$^{-4}$ and $\lvert\zeta_2\rvert$ $\lt$ 6.0 $\times$ 10$^{-13}$ GeV$^{-4}$.

Multiparticle azimuthal correlations of prompt D$^0$ mesons are measured in PbPb collisions at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s_\mathrm{NN}} =$ 5.02 TeV. For the first time, a four-particle cumulant method is used to extract the second Fourier coefficient of the azimuthal distribution ($v_2$) of D$^0$ mesons as a function of event centrality and the D$^0$ transverse momentum. The ratios of the four-particle $v_2$ values to previously measured two-particle cumulant results provide direct experimental access to event-by-event fluctuations of charm quark azimuthal anisotropies. These ratios are also found to be comparable to those of inclusive charged particles in the event. However, hints of deviations are seen in the most central and peripheral collisions. To investigate the origin of flow fluctuations in the charm sector, these measurements are compared with models implementing fluctuations of charm quark energy loss via collisional or radiative processes in the quark-gluon plasma. These models cannot quantitatively describe the data over the full transverse momentum and centrality ranges, although the calculations with collisional energy loss provide a better description of the data.

A search for the exotic decay of the Higgs boson to a pair of light pseudoscalars, each of which subsequently decays into a pair of photons, is presented. The search uses data from proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 132 fb$^{-1}$. The analysis probes pseudoscalar bosons with masses in the range 15-62 GeV, coming from the Higgs boson decay, which leads to four well-isolated photons in the final state. No significant deviation from the background-only hypothesis is observed. Upper limits are set on the product of the Higgs boson production cross section and branching fraction into four photons. The observed (expected) limits range from 0.80 (1.00) fb for a pseudoscalar boson mass of 15 GeV to 0.26 (0.24) fb for a mass of 62 GeV at 95% confidence level.

A search for the production of a top quark in association with a photon and additional jets via flavor changing neutral current interactions is presented. The analysis uses proton-proton collision data recorded by the CMS detector at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The search is performed by looking for processes where a single top quark is produced in association with a photon, or a pair of top quarks where one of the top quarks decays into a photon and an up or charm quark. Events with an electron or a muon, a photon, one or more jets, and missing transverse momentum are selected. Multivariate analysis techniques are used to discriminate signal and standard model background processes. No significant deviation is observed over the predicted background. Observed (expected) upper limits are set on the branching fractions of top quark decays: $\mathcal{B}$(t $\to$ u$\gamma$) $\lt$ 0.95 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$ (1.20 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$) and $\mathcal{B}$(t $\to$ c$\gamma$) $\lt$ 1.51 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$ (1.54 $\times$ 10$^{-5}$) at 95% confidence level, assuming a single nonzero coupling at a time. The obtained limit for $\mathcal{B}$(t $\to$ u$\gamma$) is similar to the current best limit, while the limit for $\mathcal{B}$(t $\to$ c$\gamma$) is significantly tighter than previous results.

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 the nonresonant production of Higgs boson pairs (HH) via gluon-gluon and vector boson fusion processes in final states with two bottom quarks and two tau leptons is presented. The search uses data from proton-proton collisions at a center-of-mass energy of $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV recorded with the CMS detector at the LHC, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. Events in which at least one tau lepton decays hadronically are considered and multiple machine learning techniques are used to identify and extract the signal. The data are found to be consistent, within uncertainties, with the standard model (SM) predictions. Upper limits on the HH production cross section are set to constrain the parameter space for anomalous Higgs boson couplings. The observed (expected) upper limit at 95% confidence level corresponds to 3.3 (5.2) times the SM prediction for the inclusive HH cross section and to 124 (154) times the SM prediction for the vector boson fusion HH cross section. At 95% confidence level, the Higgs field self-coupling is constrained to be within -1.7 and 8.7 times the SM expectation, and the coupling of two Higgs bosons to two vector bosons is constrained to be within -0.4 and 2.6 times the SM expectation.

We search for new massive scalar particles X and Y through the resonant process X $\to$ YH $\to$$\mathrm{b\bar{b}b\bar{b}}$, where H is the standard model Higgs boson. Data from CERN LHC proton-proton collisions are used, collected at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV in 2016-2018 and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 138 fb$^{-1}$. The search is performed in mass ranges of 0.9-4 TeV for X and 60-600 GeV for Y, where both Y and H are reconstructed as Lorentz-boosted single large-area jets. The results are interpreted in the context of the next-to-minimal supersymmetric standard model and also in an extension of the standard model with two additional singlet scalar fields. The 95% confidence level upper limits for the production cross section vary between 0.1 and 150 fb depending on the X and Y masses, and represent a significant improvement over results from previous searches.

A search for invisible decays of the Higgs boson produced via vector boson fusion (VBF) has been performed with 101 fb$^{-1}$ of proton-proton collisions delivered by the LHC at $\sqrt{s} =$ 13 TeV and collected by the CMS detector in 2017 and 2018. The sensitivity to the VBF production mechanism is enhanced by constructing two analysis categories, one based on missing transverse momentum, and a second based on the properties of jets. In addition to control regions with Z and W boson candidate events, a highly populated control region, based on the production of a photon in association with jets, is used to constrain the dominant irreducible background from the invisible decay of a Z boson produced in association with jets. The results of this search are combined with all previous measurements in the VBF topology, based on data collected in 2012 (at $\sqrt{s} =$ 8 TeV), 2015, and 2016, corresponding to integrated luminosities of 19.7, 2.3, and 36.3 fb$^{-1}$, respectively. The observed (expected) upper limit on the invisible branching fraction of the Higgs boson is found to be 0.18 (0.10) at the 95% confidence level, assuming the standard model production cross section. The results are also interpreted in the context of Higgs-portal models.

Many measurements at the LHC require efficient identification of heavy-flavour jets, i.e. jets originating from bottom (b) or charm (c) quarks. An overview of the algorithms used to identify c jets is described and a novel method to calibrate them is presented. This new method adjusts the entire distributions of the outputs obtained when the algorithms are applied to jets of different flavours. It is based on an iterative approach exploiting three distinct control regions that are enriched with either b jets, c jets, or light-flavour and gluon jets. Results are presented in the form of correction factors evaluated using proton-proton collision data with an integrated luminosity of 41.5 fb$^{-1}$ at $\sqrt{s}$ = 13 TeV, collected by the CMS experiment in 2017. The closure of the method is tested by applying the measured correction factors on simulated data sets and checking the agreement between the adjusted simulation and collision data. Furthermore, a validation is performed by testing the method on pseudodata, which emulate different miscalibration conditions. The calibrated results enable the use of the full distributions of heavy-flavour identification algorithm outputs, e.g. as inputs to machine-learning models. Thus, they are expected to increase the sensitivity of future physics analyses.